tim

=Tim's Page:=

**From "Drive" by Daniel Pink:**
 * All kids start out as curious, self-directed Type 1s. But many of them end up as disengaged, compliant Type Xs. What's going on? Maybe the problem is us - the adults who are running schools and heading families. If we want to equip young people for the new world of work - and, more important, if we want them to lead satisfying lives - we need to break Motivation 2.0's grip on education and parenting. Unfortunately, as with business, there is a mismatch between what science knows and what schools do. Science knows that if you promise a preschooler a fancy certificate for drawing a picture, that child will likely draw a picture for you - and then lose further interest in drawing. Yet in the face of this evidence - and as the world economy demands more nonroutine, creative, conceptual abilities - too many schools are moving in the wrong direction. They're redoubling their emphasis on routines, right answers and standardization. And they're hauling out a wagon full of "if-then" rewards - pizza for reading books, iPods for showing up for class, cash for good test scores. We're bribing students into compliance instead of challenging them into engagement. We can do better. And we should. If we want to raise Type 1 kids, at school and at home, we need to help them move toward autonomy, mastery and purpose.


 * And here's his take on homework:**
 * Does the homework bulging from kids' backpacks truly help them learn? Or does it simply steal their free time in the service of a false sense of rigor? Teachers, before you dole out yet another time-consuming assignment, run it through this Type 1 homework test by asking yourself three questions:
 * Am I offering students any autonomy over how and when to do this work?
 * Does this assignment promote mastery by offering a novel, engaging task (as opposed to rote reformulation of something already covered in class)?
 * Do my students understand the purpose of this assignment? That is, can they see how doing this additional activity at home contributes to the larger enterprise in which the class is engaged?
 * If the answer to any of these questions is no, can you refashion the assignment? Let's not waste our kids' time on meaningless exercises. With a little thought and effort, we can turn home//work// into home//learning//.


 * Daniel Pink's 15 Essential Books for cultivating a Type 1 lifestyle:**
 * [|Finite and Infinite Games] - James P. Carse
 * [|Talent is Overrated] - Geoff Colvin
 * [|Flow] - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
 * [|Why We Do What We Do] - Deci and Flaste
 * [|Mindset] - Carol Dweck
 * [|Then We Came to the End] - Joshua Ferris
 * [|Good Work] - Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi, Damon
 * [|Outliers] - Malcolm Gladwell
 * [|Team of Rivals] - Doris Kearns Goodwin
 * [|The Amateurs] - David Halberstam
 * [|Punished by Rewards] - Alfie Kohn
 * [|Once a Runner] - John L. Parker Jr.
 * [|The War of Art] - Steven Pressfield
 * [|Maverick] - Ricardo Semler
 * [|The Fifth Discipline] - Peter M. Senge

"One source of frustration in the workplace is the frequent mismatch between what people must do and what people can do. When what they must do exceeds their capabilities, the result is anxiety. When what they must do falls short of their capabilities, the result is boredom." - Daniel Pink