ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

Curtis Kelly

Panelists: Chuck | Marc | Peter | Curtis
Date: January 2003
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Topic: "How can we empower and motivate students?"

Chuck Sandy

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Motivation, like fluency or beauty, is something that people cannot rightfully attribute to themselves. Just as we tend to shy away from people who say, "I'm really fluent!" or "I'm quite beautiful!" it's rather odd to hear someone say, "I'm SO motivated," the way one person at a book event said to me recently. I thought, "Good for you, but why tell me?" There were several possibilities that crossed my mind, all of them plausible, yet rather than explore any of those possible motivations for saying such a thing I said, "That's great! I wish you a lot of luck" and then found a friend across the room and made my way in that direction.

“Pick your most difficult, most unmotivated student, walk into class tomorrow and, if he or she is there, find something to compliment him or her on.”

The most interesting thing about motivation - like fluency and perhaps beauty - is that it's most often discussed when it's lacking: especially in others. Sure, there are times when we ourselves say things like, "I just can't seem to get myself motivated," but what we often really mean is:

"There are a whole lot of other things I'd rather be doing."

Of course, sometimes the deep structure of such a statement is,

"I'd rather be doing anything except this." (in that tone)

That, in all it's negativity, is a form of personal revolution, but in effect it's not much different from the times when what we're signalling is that we'd like to do less, or even less than that, as in:

"I don't really feel like doing anything at all today."

Yet, except for cases of clinical depression or some other form of psychological trauma, is this anything to worry about? Probably not, for if other people are like me, they don't actually do nothing. Instead of nothing, they take a nap, reorganize things, put on some music, go out for a walk, thumb through a magazine, send an email or so, make some coffee, and all the while, let the mind wander to think about this and that.

That's what I've been doing for the past couple of days, and call it procrastination if you will, but don't call it lack of motivation. I've been plenty motivated, yet I've managed to accomplish almost nothing of value to others while successfully avoiding the things I've supposed to have been doing - like writing this article - until now.

This, of course, is why I've come to understand students like me so very well, and these are the ones I'll now turn my attention to in this article - the way I do in class. Those other students -- the handful who just show up fully self-motivated (intrinsically or extrinsically or autonomously even) - thrive to the beat of their own agenda. Even the majority of others - the ones who simply and quietly do what's expected of them without too much complaint - move forward on their own.

It's people like me ­ the procrastinators, the dreamers, the ones easily distracted by too many other interests or issues - who need not coddling, but the gentle care of alert attention. Otherwise, they'll possibly spin out of control, causing damage to others (the class, the group, their editor) while endangering their own self-esteem in the process. It took me half a lifetime, three different colleges, and four majors to learn that.

Even so, I'll admit that it is still sometimes frustrating when people like this skip appointments or show up without their homework or wander in late with their minds elsewhere. Yet, it's been years since I actually took someone to task for following their own motivations rather than my own schedules, procedures, and policies. What is the point of that? Yet, as a new teacher I thought, "these people are not doing what I told them to do! They're not listening to me! I'll show them! I'll make them pay!" The result: instant collapse of even potential motivation, and perhaps even potential. Bad vibes. Bad class. Bad day for everyone.

Now, I think, maybe they had something better to do or some problem to deal with or maybe something came up, or in the case of unfinished written work, perhaps, like me, they didn't know what it was they wanted to say - yet. So, I cut them some slack, find out what's going on, maybe extend a deadline for them, point them in a good direction, let them know I'm paying attention, and so discover how to pull them back in. It can be done and it's more than just worth doing.

The list of possible reasons for people to want to follow their own motivations rather than those of others is potentially endless, but as Charles Olson writes in Human Universe (1958), "There are laws: that is to say, the human universe is as discoverable as that other. And as definable."

Olson wasn't an academic, interested in reducing things to lists of five or even two the way those most esteemed experts on motivation have done. Olson was a poet and someone who simply understood that we can and should consider the human universe seriously, work out its laws and principles, and then even go on to define it, discuss it, and write poems and papers about it. He also understood, though, that none of this is possible without the clear understanding that each person is a universe - that vast, that deep, that complex.

What's interesting is that Olson's central thesis has nothing to do with education, but everything to do with understanding the self and others. What should be clear, though, is that this is what education is all about.

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Panelists: Chuck | Marc | Peter | Curtis

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