Seattle Times: Should Learning Be its Own Reward?

dmd77
Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:54:36 +0000

Back when I was teaching HS chemistry full-time, I had a surprisingly large number of students who thought it was the teacher’s job to make learning “fun.” I spent some time explaining about the intrinisic rewards of struggling to learn something difficult (and I personally think the concept of a mole–and the rest of stoichiometry–is perhaps the hardest thing they learn in HS) and then succeeding, and how good they would feel about themselves once they’d done that. To me, making the transition from the “fun” of elementary and middle school (and note that I think such ideas are a mistake) to the serious effort–and delayed gratification–required for some high school subjects is essential for long-term success.