When I was getting my teacher certification in graduate school 20 years ago, student motivation and interest were deemed to be two important ingredients in successful learning. Reading your article, I realized that we have forgotten how student interest drives motivation.
Students who feel that they are competent in a subject will be more motivated to work harder at learning new concepts in that subject. This has been an accepted precept in education for the last two decades.
If student motivation is external through pressures like grades, parental and societal expectations, and “readiness for college” (in fourth grade!), students do not feel empowered to take control of their own learning.
True learning, the kind that the Common Core standards want to measure, has to be internally motivated by a desire for knowledge. Excellent teachers know that they must “hook” their students and provide them with the materials and instruction that impel them to want to learn more.
We seem to have removed the “fun” of learning and created nervous students who care only about getting the grades that “prove” they are good students.
The writer is an elementary and middle school literacy achievement coach, New York City Department of Education.