The weekly newspaper “USA Today” carried an interesting article about education on May 11, 2011. The article was entitled, ” How to Reshape U.S. Education” and was written by Amy Chua, the author of “BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER” and a law professor at Yale University.
The article highlighted the following: “Parents should insist that we combine Asia’s discipline with American creativity so that our children can excel in the global economy.”
As with the vast majority of articles, this one also addresses “what” needs to be done, but does not include any idea of “how” to do it. The article does assert, however, that there is one critical skill where our kids lag behind: learning how to learn.” This requires MOTIVATION, the essential learning characteristic.
Apathy toward putting forth effort to learn is rampant in schools today—especially in lower socioeconomic areas. In order to prompt these students to learn the teacher must have positive relationships, create a climate where students feel that they will be safe psychologically as well as emotionally, and the teacher must be a “marketer” of information—one who prompts student motivation.
How to accomplish all of these is outlined in the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model.
