I find it useful to think of as a teacher as the mechanism behind the principle of readiness, for two separate reasons:
Students who are tired, hungry, thirsty and busting for a toilet are not going to focus on a lecture about aerodynamics. The lecture is less immediate than their other needs.
Students who don’t see a need to learn aerodynamics aren’t going to bother to put in the effort to pay attention. Yes, higher learning can fulfill those higher, more intellectual needs up toward the self-actualization end of the pyramid, but it’s not a guarantee. It is the responsibility of the teacher to inform his students which needs his lesson will help his students fulfill. By high school, students intuitively understand this, and might ask an algebra teacher “Why do we have to know this?” It amazes me how often that answer comes back “To graduate.” As a flight instructor, I always found “So that you don’t hit the trees at the end of the runway, catch fire and die” is more motivating to students.
I find it useful to think of as a teacher as the mechanism behind the principle of readiness, for two separate reasons:
Students who are tired, hungry, thirsty and busting for a toilet are not going to focus on a lecture about aerodynamics. The lecture is less immediate than their other needs.
Students who don’t see a need to learn aerodynamics aren’t going to bother to put in the effort to pay attention. Yes, higher learning can fulfill those higher, more intellectual needs up toward the self-actualization end of the pyramid, but it’s not a guarantee. It is the responsibility of the teacher to inform his students which needs his lesson will help his students fulfill. By high school, students intuitively understand this, and might ask an algebra teacher “Why do we have to know this?” It amazes me how often that answer comes back “To graduate.” As a flight instructor, I always found “So that you don’t hit the trees at the end of the runway, catch fire and die” is more motivating to students.