Here are two questions that people never seem to ask when talking about schools, because they’re obsessed with money:
1. If you want to learn something, can anyone stop you?
2. If you don’t want to learn something, can anyone make you?
Perhaps instead of a pedagogy problem, what we have is a motivation problem. Kids who are strongly motivated to learn mostly need to be pointed in the right direction. Kids who aren’t motivated to learn can’t be taught at any cost.
Could that explain why, even though we’re spending about $10,000 more per student per year¹ since Claremont (1998), we’ve seen absolutely no increases in student achievement?
Maybe we should try thinking different, instead of just spending more.
¹ Yes, that’s adjusted for inflation.
