We prepare teachers to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and other useful skills and worthwhile information leading to knowledge—and, hopefully, wisdom. Unfortunately, teachers are not taught that which is most essential when first entering the classroom: How to motivate for responsible behavior AND motivate students to want to put forth effort in their learning.
As I often tell people, “OBEDIENCE DOES NOT CREATE DESIRE.”
Practitioners of the Raise Responsibility System (Roman Numeral III at http://marvinmarshall.com/files/pdf/teaching_model.pdf) understand that the ONLY part of the system STUDENTS need to understand are the four levels of personal and social development. Lower levels A and B are unacceptable, whereas the higher levels C and D are both acceptable. Also, THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEVEL C AND LEVEL D IS IN THE MOTIVATION. The motivation for level C is “EXternal,” whereas the motivation for level D is “INternal.”
Two examples I use in my seminars are (1) asking a teenager at home to make one’s bed before going to school and (2) asking a student in a classroom to pick up one’s trash. In the home example, if the teenager knew the responsibility/standard /expectation of the home and would have made the bed without being asked, the BEHAVIOR would be the same as when being asked. In each situation, the bed would have been made before going to school.
Similarly in the school example, if the student would have taken the initiative to pick up the trash without first being asked, the trash would have been picked up. The BEHAVIOR would have been the same.
The DIFFERENCE between these two acceptable levels IS IN THE MOTIVATION, NOT NECESSARILY IN THE BEHAVIOR. Therefore, you may begin to see “level C” and “level D” referred to BY ADULTS as “C/D”—although it is still preferable to have the student differentiate between the two.
