Aaron Bennett
Ed. 391
Motivation
11-21-‘00
I wasn’t all that great of a student of the English language in High School. In fact, it was my lowest grade in High School. Freshman year English, Mrs. Hebden’s class, I received a D+ first semester. My parents did not believe in paying for good grades so I did not have that extrinsic motivation. Hey, they are teachers and took Educational Psychology too. I guess they wanted to instill a learning for learning’s sake attitude. Maybe it worked like they wanted it to, I’m not all that sure yet. It’s not that I hated English. It could not have been more opposite. I loved English. I would read constantly. I read a lot of horror literature and science fiction. My English teacher did not like me and I was not to crazy about her either. She would grade on style and ideas rather than grammar and strength of argument. I would try to play devil’s advocate many times. I think part of what drove me to learn was the ability to “beat” Mrs. Hebden. I figured if I knew more than she did about the subject she was teaching, I could out argue her. I could back my arguments up with data that you could cross-reference in different books. Her argument came from vague ideas and notions that did not always have concrete backing. I could tell that she did not like being corrected; maybe that was why I did it. By the end of the semester she would ask me for clarification on details and such. That need to prove Mrs. Hebden wrong came from an intense intrinsic motivation to learn. The love of learning played off the extrinsic motivation of “beating” Mrs. Hebden. I cannot tell you if what I did was “right” or not, I am just telling you that that was the way it was.
There were times when I feel prey to the lure of extrinsic motivation as well. My sense of humor did not fit into the teacher’s norm of student behavior. I was never unruly or disruptive. I was usually at the head of the class grade wise. I do not think they knew what to make of me. I learned to prostitute myself to follow the norm. This is a case when extrinsic and intrinsic motivations were pulling me in different directions. I hated every minute of it and vowed never to lose touch with the real me. I wrote the way they wanted me to, but I knew it did not jive with me. One of my last papers I wrote in High School was about Hemingway. I hate Hemingway and do not particularly like his stories. I knew what the teacher wanted and wrote my paper like that. She gave me an A+++++++++, she said it was the best paper she had ever read. When she handed it back I stood up and dropped it into the garbage. I felt empty inside like I had just sold a part of my soul. I told her I was ashamed that that worthless drivel had come from my pen. I showed Mrs. Hebden and my parents that I could do it. Even then when I was working for a grade (extrinsic motivation), I had other reasons for what I did. I wanted that good grade. I knew at some point I would have to have good enough grades to get into a good college. I have learned in college how to mesh the two types of writing together a little better. I can discuss things with reason and backing while still having my voice come in. That extrinsic motivation of getting good grades started to affect and be affected by my intrinsic motivation to become a better writer.
Motivation is not always a cut and dry type of thing. In trying to write this paper, I ripped apart situation that I thought were one or the other. On a close examination, I found evidences of both. There are many gray areas. Do you do well in school to earn a grade? That would be an extrinsic motivation. Do you do well in school to get good grades, so you can get into a good college, so you can ultimately better yourself? Is that extrinsic or intrinsic? The motivation may be money or personal betterment. It is hard to see for sure, and many times we even delude ourselves. In this light how can we truly know the motivation behind what we do? Sure there are times like when parents give money to kids for good grades that definitely would classify as extrinsic motivation. When you are an adult and more or less control your life, the motivation becomes more obscured. We want kids to learn for intrinsic causes, but then we put so much stock into the power of money. The trick is to get the two to work together. People will not get graded in the workplace. They will however get money, usually more if they do a good job. The raises and promotions are akin to the extrinsic motivation they received as a little tyke in school. Kids say “trick-or-treat” to get candy at Halloween. That is a pretty good case of extrinsic motivation. There is a time in adolescence when most people shun such childish things. They no longer need such extrinsic motivation. When you get older, you realize how much fun the actual process was. It is not really about the candy, but about getting to dress up and have fun. I went trick-or-treating with my roommate and his girlfriend this last Halloween. She had never been trick-or-treating since she was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. We had a great time. It was not because of all the candy we got, that was good but we could have bought our own candy. It was the fun recapturing of childhood memories. If things do not have the intrinsic as well as the extrinsic, they can become cheapened. At some point, there must be an internal reason for doing things. People who go through their lives living for extrinsic motivations lead sorry existences. They are always striving to get the good grades or the higher paying job. They do not take the time to realize why they are doing it. They wake up one day with an empty life surrounded by things. This is why teachers push students to love learning. If students love learning, they will not feel as disappointed when a specific award is not achieved. They will be more apt to realize that they learned from the experience and that in itself is an invaluable thing to have. If we as teachers can instill this ethic in our students they will tend to be more interested in lifelong learning and lead “better” lives.
