On Mon, 5 May 1997, Tony Barrett wrote:
> I found both the comments on Ben's situation both thoughtful and also
> limited. Like Malcolm, I too worked as a high school subsistitute teacher
> while working my way through my master's degree. I found the students who
> were not college bound thrived on being respected. Perhaps because they
> didn't get much of positive regard outside of class. It could also be
> they were aware they didn't know much. Healthy humility is an important
> factor in learning something new. Tony D. points out the difference of
> values. The slow students value learning and insecure students attempting
> to show what they already know.
Alfie Kohn talks about this phenomenon (resistance to learning in
"high-achieving" students) in _Punished by Rewards_. He believes that the
traditional carrot-and-stick approach causes such students to adopt a
"what's in it for me?" attitude, regarding visible symbols of success
(such as getting into a bumper-sticker school) as the end and education
(as opposed to learning) as a means to them.
--Eric Bohlman <ebohlman@netcom.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>