Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

by Daniel H. Pink

HAVE A FEDEX DAY

TRY DIY REPORT CARDS

At the beginning of a semester, ask students to list their top learning goals. Then, at the end of the semester, ask them to create their own report card along with a one- or two-paragraph review of their progress. Where did they succeed? Where did they fall short? What more do they need to learn? Once students have completed their DIY report cards, show them the teacher’s report card, and let the comparison of the two be the start of a conversation on how they are doing on their path toward mastery.

GIVE YOUR KIDS AN ALLOWANCE AND SOME CHORES—BUT DON’T COMBINE THEM

Here’s why an allowance is good for kids: Having a little of their own money, and deciding how to save or spend it, offers a measure of autonomy and teaches them to be responsible with cash.

Here’s why household chores are good for kids: Chores show kids that families are built on mutual obligations and that fami...

Here’s why combining allowances with chores is not good for kids. By linking money to the completion of chores, parents turn an allowance into an “if-then” reward. This sends kids a clear (and clearly wrongheaded) message: In the absence of a payment, no self-respecting child would willingly set the table, empty the garbage, or make her own bed. It converts a moral and familial obligation into just another commercial transacti...

OFFER PRAISE . . . THE RIGHT WAY

Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence.

Make praise specific.

Praise in private.

Offer praise only when there’s a good reason for it.

HELP KIDS SEE THE BIG PICTURE

Why am I learning this? How is it relevant to the world I live in now?

PAY TEACHERS MORE INTELLIGENTLY

First, raise the base pay of teachers. Too many talented people opt out of this career because they’re concerned about supporting their families.

Second, at the same time, we have to make it much easier to get rid of bad teachers.

Just as it’s very motivating to have great colleagues, it’s incredibly de-motivating to have lazy or incompetent ones.

CHECK OUT THESE FIVE TYPE I SCHOOLS

Big Picture Learning.

http://www.bigpicture.org/.

Sudbury Valley School.

The Tinkering School.

Puget Sound Community School.

Montessori Schools.

the Reggio Emilia philosophy for the education of young children and the Waldorf schools. For more information, visit these websites: www.montessori-ami.org, www.montessori.org, www.amshq.org, www.reggioalliance.org, and www.whywaldorfworks.org.

TAKE A CLASS FROM THE UNSCHOOLERS

Start by reading John Taylor Gatto’s extraordinary book, Dumbing Us Down. Check out Mary Griffith’s The Unschooling Handbook and Grace Llewellyn’s The Teenage Liberation Handbook.

Take a look at Home Education Magazine and its website. Then check out some of the many other unschooling sites on the Web. For more information, visit any of these: www.homeedmag.com [inactive], www.unschooling.com [inactive], www.sandradodd.com/unschooling, and lifelearningmagazine.com.

TURN STUDENTS INTO...

Assign each pupil in a class a different aspect of the broader topic you’re studying—and then have them take turns teaching what they’ve learned to their classmates.

A classroom of teachers is a classroom of learners.

The Type I Reading List: Fifteen Essential Books

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility BY JAMES P. CARSE

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else BY GEOFF COLVIN

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation BY EDWARD L. DECI WITH RICHARD FLASTE

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success BY CAROL DWECK

Then We Came to the End BY JOSHUA FERRIS

Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet BY HOWARD GARDNER, MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, AND WILLIAM DAMON

Outliers: The Story of Success BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal BY DAVID HALBERSTAM

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes BY ALFIE KOHN

Once a Runner BY JOHN L. PARKER, JR.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace BY RICARDO SEMLER

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization BY PETER M. SENGE

Listen to the Gurus: Seven Business Thinkers Who Get It

DOUGLAS MCGREGOR