@Kyatic This is awful. Bizarre but awful. Why did they cut the communal tree with a bird feeder down in the first place? Surely if the entire group don’t like it they should have asked to remove the feeder? Or just removed it without chopping down a tree.
‘They Just Don’t Care’
I’m seeing lots of posts bemoaning that the Year 11s just don’t seem to care about their upcoming GCSEs. They aren’t motivated or worried about their speaking exams starting in two weeks time and nothing seems to make a difference.
This is exactly what would be predicted by the science of motivation. Motivation can come from the inside or the outside (or a mixture of the two). Standard schooling works on a principle of controlling children’s motivation. From the moment that children start school, adults are working to motivate them through rewards, sanctions, grades and approvals. They tell children that what they want to do is less important than what adults want them to do. They make them learn things which have no purpose to them, because they will be ‘important later on’.
This changes the purpose of learning. Young children learn because they want to find out and they are driven to explore the world. They ask questions because they are curious and want to participate. It’s hard to stop young children learning, and their learning is very individualised and frequently messy.
Adults try to make this linear, to make them follow a formal process. This isn’t how children naturally learn, and so they have to be controlled in order to do what is required. When we take away their choices and instead give them stickers and certificates to make them do what we want, then we turn learning into an exercise in compliance.
Now they aren’t learning because they want to find out, they are learning because they are being told that they have to. They don’t read because they love stories, they read because they have to do 15 minutes every night to tick it off. They are helpful because they might get an Achievement Point, or a 'Caught Being Kind' sticker.
The research shows that over time, this will damage their internal drive to learn and this is exactly what we see. They don’t ask why any more, they ask what will be on the test. They don’t choose a topic because they are interested, they choose whatever they think will be easiest. And over time, the stickers and stars lose their sparkle. It’s easy to control a five-year-old with a sticker, but 15-year-olds will laugh in your face.
When we focus on the cognitive science of learning, it’s easy to miss that the science of motivation is as important. Experimental studies on how adults learn often don’t even address this issue, because adults have some level of choice in what they do and that is assumed.
For children and teenagers, it’s different. They often have no choice at all. What they want to learn doesn’t matter. Understanding the science of learning is futile if the learner doesn’t want to know. Cognitive science doesn’t apply to forced learning. What the learner thinks, matters.
It’s easy to blame teenagers, or their parents, or even the pandemic. It’s deeply frustrating when you are trying to help people who just don’t care. But what if this is actually the predictable result of our education system?
We ignore the science of motivation and our young people pay the price.
@Swilua I hope you’re on the road to recovery now and you’re getting the treatment you need. Rest, hydrate and rest some more. Thank you for sharing this as I had a similar experience, it’s very interesting.
@nursekelsey We’ve added stationary like pencils, chalks, erasers. Also a snack like fruit snacks or a mini pack of cookies along with a mini sketchbook and some bubbles (which can be refilled).
But we’ve also had parties where I instead if a gift bag the kids got to choose a book.
@acweyand@MourningDoveMed But this isn’t always the vernacular that’s commonly known or made aware to the general populace. It would be good to have a reliable source of terms to use regardless of whether they have a doctor.
@HowtoADHD Maybe the issue that sometimes ppl, kids inc, are only diagnosed or appear to need accommodations once they’re rocking on the precipice of a burnout. That it can take an incredibly long time to build confidence & a sense of ‘normality’ after; compassion & accoms are necessary.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service are scaling back operations at Old Steine, Brighton. Six appliances, two Ariel Ladder Platforms remain on scene. Please continue to avoid the area.
For more information on the incident visit: https://t.co/4CBtQxR0Br
As I pulled my resident aside after a tough day doing regional anesthesia, I asked the same first question I always ask when I have clinical competency concerns,
“How are things at home?”
Most of the time the answer is “fine.”
This time the answer was “I have cancer.”
1/
@hankgreen Do we take into account that some animals are likely die die earlier due to human intervention either in their habit or due to farming? I have no data on this, I just recall that some animals, especially those that are farmed intensively now, lived longer historically. 🤷♀️