2022 TEACH BETTER CONFERENCE

For years, schools have used grades as the carrot to try and get kids to play the game of school. We hold these in front of them, making them compliant under threat of giving them poor grades. This worked well for the child who cared about grades or were motivated by them, but what about those who do not? How do we get them excited about learning? We cannot subscribe to a one-size fits all education where we teach a certain way and expect kids to fall in line. Instead of dangling this single carrot, we need to think of education as being ‘a la carte, where students have choice in how and what they are learning. We need to approach school as though every student has different things that motivates them and it is our job to figure out what this is, and how to provide it for them.