On the self, learning, and motivation

As I prepared for this particular article beneath the combined loads of Model United Nations and the CommonApp, the topic of “motivated learning” never felt more relevant. At a certain point, I’ve found one must dig deep to derive any reason at all to get out of bed and run the gauntlet.

I went about on WeChat, doing the rounds and asking the standard interview question for this article, “What do you believe is the chief motivation in studying as a student?”

“Grades,” Raphael Lee (12B) stated flatly.

Hm. Yup, that sounded about right.

“Can I talk about intrinsic motivation?” he suddenly asked. “I feel like the most intrinsically motivated students are the athletes.”

Now this was interesting. Wasn’t really what I had in mind, but fascinating all the same.

“I’ve seen many athletes, both guys and girls, strive to be the best…It is physically demanding not only through the practices, but also in how they return home at 8, 9, even 10:00 pm because of their away games. They are fully aware of what they have to sacrifice time-wise, but still join because they enjoy it.”

It was an idea worth pursuing, to be sure. I was initially asking these questions in relation to academics, but such motivation in athletes certainly seemed interesting and relevant as well. The root of it, as Raphael had said, lay in genuine personal enjoyment of the activities at hand.

Or, as he put it, “Self actualization!”

What then does it mean to be a truly motivated learner? The key and most problematic part of it is “motivated”. It is not difficult to be a “learner” in general, indeed with every action one takes, one learns just a little something, whether that being the fact that it takes way too long to get from the A-wing bathroom to your homeroom class, or that your face feels funny when you flick the back of your neck. What matters most is that our learning is driven by worthy motives. So when we ask what a motivated learner is, the primary question of it all is that of motivation: where do we as students turn for incentives to learn (and even get out of bed)?

A common one is simply grades. The almighty GPA! And the sweet fruit of the CommonApp/Coalition/UC/that one thing for Georgetown. It is acting out of the fear of coming across a single B- on the report card, lest one completely flunk out of the class, and eventually flunk out the entire year, and thus get disowned from your family and be left with some obscure community college with the mascot of a cabbage. Then, since all you’ve understood from your time in that college is about what foods are good for hangovers, you fail your exams, either graduate late or don’t graduate at all, at which point all you can do is go to work in the streets as a street sweeper, eternally lamenting the rich path that had awaited you had you not gotten that B- on the report card that one time in the seventh grade.

I exaggerate, of course, but the principle remains the same: the notion persists that you must educate yourself to avoid the often rather over-inflated perils of having a mediocre GPA. Not that this itself is an entirely ill-founded motive: after all, what is the GPA? A numerical representation of your knowledge and skills, essentially. So when you pursue a GPA, is it not then the pursuit of bettering one’s skills, which in turn might enable one to be skilled enough to earn one’s daily bread and perhaps even support a family? A noble effort to be sure. The only issue is that we stray so often from that goal into the realm of worshipping the GPA itself rather than the skills it represents. This brings to mind the quote from an anonymous college student, declaring that, “I spend so much time studying that I don’t have a chance to learn anything.” When we are caught up in the details and pressures of schooling, we often lose sight of the initial purpose of it.

The healthiest motive for education, according to education specialist and Stanford professor, William Damon, lies in the desire to develop oneself as a person: to “encourage a sense of purpose,” as he says. He declares that the meaning of education is to expose students to the differing activities, the differing facets of knowledge with the hope that they might discover for themselves what it is they find interesting, what they might be able to provide in the future, and what the world itself actually needs of them. There is an element of transcendence to it almost, an idea of how one can take these skills and one day devote them to something greater, whether that be the family, the political scene, the hustle and bustle of the financial centers, or perhaps as a teacher. In this, education is more than a way to memorize lists of trivia or to get into a good college: it is a tool of self-discovery by which one may derive one’s purpose. Indeed, it sounds very much similar to what Raphael had said when he’d declared “Self Actualization” to me over WeChat.

Now perhaps this sounds a bit far-fetched. Who has time for self-discovery when there are NHD projects, MUN conferences, and math chapter tests to prepare for? With all these different activities to engage in, can we really be blamed for losing sight of the initial purpose of education? The answer is that though it is undeniably difficult, recommitting one’s educational efforts to seeking a greater purpose is a necessary step to a more fulfilling educational career. It may take considerable effort to take that first step of altering one’s paradigm, but it is considerably more difficult to go without. Grade-centric mindsets can sustain us for a time, but if the number is all that matters to us in the end, we will eventually tire, and miss the greater lessons to be learned.

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