Thanks to an excellent post by Jennifer Brokofsky, I learned about this short video of Sir Ken Robinson. He makes an excellent point about the importance of helping students motivate themselves (and I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students):
“Farmers and gardeners know you cannot make a plant grow….The plant grows itself. What you do is provide the conditions for growth. And great farmers know what the conditions are and bad ones don’t. Great teachers know what the conditions for growth are and bad ones don’t.”
Excellent, excellent. Anyone who doesn’t want to learn, won’t. Anyone who wants to learn, will. It is therefore the job of educators to make sure that they provide an environment where students will want to learn, and the learning will come. They will listen more, ask questions and look for answers themselves. I wonder, can curiosity be taught?