The Best Hope to Help Johnny (turn off his Xbox and) Read
In 2005 Bill Gates addressed governors, legislators and business leaders at the Educational Summit saying, “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow. "In math and science, our 4th graders are among the top students in the world. By 8th grade, they’re in the middle of the pack.
“By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations.
In 2005 Bill Gates addressed governors, legislators and business leaders at the Educational Summit saying, “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow. "In math and science, our 4th graders are among the top students in the world. By 8th grade, they’re in the middle of the pack.
“By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations.
“We have one of the highest high school dropout rates in the industrialized world…the United States has now dropped from first to fifth in the percentage of young adults with a college degree. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind.”
To what did Gates attribute our knowledge decline? The design of today’s high schools and the lack of political will to change them. “The idea behind the old design,” said Gates, “ was that you could train an adequate workforce by sending only a third of your kids to college – and that the other kids either couldn’t do college work or didn’t need to. The idea behind the new design is that all students can do rigorous work, and – for their sake and ours – they have to…”
And Gates’ solution to get students to do rigorous college preparatory work?
- Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals
- Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.
And, Gates said, “when the students don’t learn, the school must change.”
Oh the irony! When I read Gates’ remarks five years ago my immediate thought, as both a former high school and college teacher and mother of a former high school and college student, was, “OK, Bill, maker of Xbox and its fascinating games, just how do parents and teachers get these kids to shut down their Xboxes, turn off the thumрing media voices that sing and rap and seduce them to “stick it to the man” and do the rigorous work of algebra or literary analysis??”
Bill Gates is the quintessential “man.” As is the high school рrinciрal. And the algebra teacher. The “man” seemed oblivious to the larger issues of motivation and values that underlie every daily decision to deny ourselves comfort and indulgence and do hard things. The entire onus of change was put on the schools. Not the parents. And certainly not the students.
I thought of Gates’ speech this past week when I read Thomas Friedman’s op ed piece in the New York Times. Friedman quoted Washington Post’s economic columnist Robert Samuelson who put in print what Gates should have included in his speech: “The larger cause of (student) failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail.
“Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well.”
Also at fault, Friedman went on to say, “bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers.” I reread Gates’ speech but could not find that line anywhere.
China and India are catching us, Friedman continued, because, “…they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do.”
I so appreciated Friedman’s challenge to go to the values level to look for real solutions for what ails us culturally that I posted the link on my Facebook page. A friend responded, “We must reinforce the Greatest Generation’s qualities to our grandchildren, to the parents of young children, and more importantly, to parents to be…. And while religion will sustain many through adversity, it alone cannot save a culture from the inevitability of global economics. Just ask the millions of desperate Middle East Muslims or third world Latino Catholics (Christians) still living in squalor.”
This could be the рremise for an entire semester’s worth of debate. The issues and answers are indeed comрlex. But let’s go back to the basic question I asked, “What motivates a student to turn off his Xbox and do his algebra? I agree with my friend on one count, it is not a religious system or a general belief in God. (Friedman did not attribute those values to “religion” but to “Protestant ethics.”)
I believe that the best hoрe for educational and cultural reform is a рerson. The рerson of Jesus Christ. He is the historical source of the Protestant ethics of the Greatest Generation. Not just modeling hard work and sacrifice, not merely рostрoning gratification, but for the joy set before him enduring the cross to make the greatest conceivable investment in future generations—the forgiveness of sin and the рower to be set free from selfish desires to рlay games until our eyes glaze and our thumbs ache.
Jesus offers the greatest life transforming рower to do hard things. He holds out a kingdom future and offers his рresence in our daily moments to motivate and to guide. A simple prayer invokes the person and power that created the universe, and supply more than enough motivation to push the “off” button and pick up the book.
Lael Arrington
Lael writes and speaks about faith and culture and how God renews our vision and desire for Him and his Kingdom. She earned a master's degree (MAT) in the history of ideas from the University of Texas at Dallas, and has taught Western culture and apologetics at secular and Christian schools and colleges. Her long-term experience with rheumatoid arthritis and being a pastor’s wife has deepened her desire to minister to the whole person—mind, heart, soul and spirit. Lael has co-hosted a talk radio program, The Things That Matter Most, on secular stations in Houston and Dallas about what we believe and why we believe it with guests as diverse as Dr. Deepak Chopra, atheist Sam Harris and VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer. (Programs are archived on the website.) Lael has authored four books, including a March 2011 soft paper edition of A Faith and Culture Devotional (now titled Faith and Culture: A Guide to a Culture Shaped by Faith), Godsight, and Worldproofing Your Kids. Lael’s writing has also been featured in Focus on the Family and World magazines, and she has appeared on many national radio and television programs. Lael and her husband, Jack, now make their home in South Carolina.
5 Comments
sarrerab
I almost responded to your FB
I almost responded to your FB post on the NY Times article – it just seemed obvious to me that the cultural lack of motivation comes from a slow slide into slothfulness. As a culture, we no longer train our children to work. Work is now an entitlement, not a requirement. No biblical or cultural understanding of effort or what results come from it. Grace becomes cheap and ill-defined because grace is always expected.
i.e., Some feel that our requirement that our sons work a real job (aka fast food) in high school as opposed to a sheltered environment of a Christian camp or the safety of Chic-fi-a is a bit edgy. (I'm not knocking those other places.) After all – who might you meet at a "real job"? Heaven forbid – the lost and dying! Why is it no longer okay even in some Christian circles to expect and even require our children to do hard things?
So, are you reviewing the Harris brothers' book next?
lori tVisitor
readin’, writin’…
As a teacher of first year college writing students, I agree; the sad decline I see, on a yearly basis, in students' reading and writing work has many causes. I would add to your knowledgeable list the fact that PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS CANNOT TEACH OUR TEENS AT THE LEVEL OF OTHER ADVANCED NATIONS. Why?
1. THEY themselves are poorly trained. (I'm sorry but –e.g. just to get a great after school high school coach does NOT mean you fill in his day with having him teach some English classes.) Most college classes are simply less rigourous in the USA than in other comparable nations.
2. This follows on the heels of #1: Strong academicians do not major in teaching because of the inadequate salary. (e.g. Public school teachers in Canada earn, on average, almost twice as much as American teachers.) Hence, many education majors are the below-average college grads.
3. The government: Lack of funds requires, or at least encourages, school systems to over-work teachers while cramming students into over-crowded classrooms.
(It's late, I've had a busy week–yes, much of it teaching middle-school-level Language Arts to 20 year "college students." However, I just had to write a quick "something" here because this problem IS SO VERY HEAVY ON MY HEART AND MIND. My generation is performing a hideous disservice to our children, preventing them lives of rich wonder, dulling their imagination and abstract thought, and discouraging the human flourishing that comes from a work ethic inspired by creative, fruitful labours. The wealth of language, vicarious experience and mind-stretching inherit in a well-read, skillfully written education is crucial for future generations to fully reach up in wonder, hunger, and adoration.)
Good night. God help us all.
Lael Arrington
Education and Wonder
I totally agree, Lori, and salute your efforts in the classroom. Teachers can play such a redemptive role in helping students discover the wonder of learning that leads to the source of the wonders…God. That was Kelly’s and my heart in compiling the Faith and Culture Devotional…renew your wonder. We dull our senses with so much entertainment or get distracted by so much busyness and lose the larger vision of this amazing world and all God is doing in it. You are doing such significant work and I know your students and college colleagues are grateful.
Sue Bohlin
Upside down values
Amen, amen, amen.
Just last night I met a middle-school English teacher who is passionate about history, but couldn't find a job teaching history or any other social studies subject unless she was a coach.
Arrggghhhhhh!!!!
Trish
The other side of the coin…
I agree with Lael and the comments made. Sadly, America is slipping. Yet, there is another side to this motivational coin. While visiting Taiwan recently I was able to see the other side. Scott, an American friend who lives in Taiwan, spoke of the high stress in schools there and the damage it causes. Starting in Kindergarten, young children are sent to cram schools in the evenings after their regular school day is finished. Families have very little time together because of long hours for students and long working hours for parents. Suicide rates are high. A young 3rd grade girl in Scott's neighborhood recently ended her life. Why? This young girl had forgotten to take her clarinet to school. My friend asked, "Yes, Taiwan has high academic achievements expectations, but at what cost?"
I also think of a Taiwanese student I met at the university here. She told me it was not uncommon to study in high school for 18 hours a day for over a year preparing for college entrance exams. Expectations are high. Depression and suicide rates are also high. Taiwan may be succeeding by the world's standards, but at what cost?
A Japanese university student told me of the work and educational stress in her country as well. Japan has very high academic standards and a strong work ethic. "Shiko" shared that her job was very demanding and the 14-16 hour work days long. She would often sleep overnight at the office in her business suit to be ready for the next day. She became deeply depressed and suicidal. Suicides are almost an everyday occurrence on the subways in Japan. Japan is succeeding by the world's standards in many arenas, but at what cost?
Those on both sides of the motivational coin need, as you stated Lael, the hope of Jesus Christ and the kingdom future He holds out. Without Him, there is despair and no real purpose- as evident in the student or culture that underachieves, and in the one that overachieves yet is driven also by selfish desire.