Motivating Students

Another educational goal of mine is to motivate my college students to learn. That is my most difficult task. When I started teaching in 2002, I naively figured that all my students were as interested in learning as I am. That was a big mistake.

 One of my graduate instructors described me as a “life-long learner.”  I never thought of it before, but that is what I am. I love learning stuff.  (I also have an outstanding vocabulary, right?)  I loved every minute of school because if I was not home working on the farm. I vastly preferred using my noggin to muscles. Then, you ask, how come I never amounted to anything? Good question.  

When I started teaching, I saw that many, many students took a cavalier attitude to attending class. “This is college,” I could see them thinking. “I can go to class when I want, and that old guy will never know the difference.”

 I immediately blamed myself for doing something wrong. I figured I must be totally boring (still a possibility) and/or they just were not interested in English.. Well, I probably am totally boring, and they aren’t interested in English.
              The real truth is that most of them are totally consumed by their lives  - trying to work, study, play and go to school. And, unfortunately, most of them think play is the most important. (One 18-year-old female student’s goal in life was not to become a famous surgeon or to snag a rich husband, but to get smashed. Like four or five times a week. I kid you not. She wrote about it.)

               I told them that when I was studying for my master’s, I had full-time and part-time jobs. I worked evenings weekends and holidays, and I attended school day and night on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I was already a writer, so, if anyone could afford to miss a class, it was I. But I only missed two classes in six years. I did not miss class because I actually loved going. This did not seem to impress them too much.  

I tried fun and games in class.  We play games with words that are homonyms or easily confused like principle and principal or advice and advise or affect and effect. I have never found a student who knew the difference between capitol and capital. Do you?

One of my favorite things is to read them sentences which prove why English is a difficult language. We produce produce on the farm. The dove dove into the bushes. He was not close enough to the door to close it. That kind of gets them interested but only temporarily.

We don’t have much discussion in class because it is hard to drag anything out of them. And I am not one of those instructors who likes to waste time talking about himself (that’s hard to believe, isn’t it?) and the world in general. So many students skip class when they feel like it. Some have a legitimate reason, but they don’t share it with me.

Most want to pass the class by doing all the work, even be it late, and not attending class. I tell them it doesn’t work like that. Students may be able to write already, but they still have to do the assigned work to pass the class.

So what do I do now? I really don’t know. I thought by writing about my ignorance in a publication, I could give it to them to read, and it might make more of an impact. So how do I, the student asks, achieve self-motivation?

The best advice I can give a student (and anyone for that matter) is to try to enjoy what you do. If you really love learning, then there is no way you are not going to get an A in my class. You will get an A because you will attend all the classes and do all the work until it is right. Imagine how much this is going to help you, and maybe you will start enjoying it.

 Read. I have preached this until I am blue in the gills. Read everything in sight. Read novels, comic books, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, cereal boxes. Soon you will start to enjoy reading. Soon you will discover yourself knowing how to spell and to use grammar correctly., You may even know where punctuation goes and what syntax is. You won’t want to miss class, and, believe it or not, you might even find out why some of those crummy classics are classics.

Think of yourself first. Why are you taking this class? It’s not for mom or pop or grandma or your professor. It’s for yourself.  You all want success in life. Here is how to achieve it. Be kind to yourself. Dedicate yourself 100 per cent to whatever you do.

Won’t your mom and pop and grandma be surprised when you show them your report card? Or your husband and kids? All A’s. Just think of it. You would be on top of the world. There’s a much better view from there than from the bottom.

Won’t it be impressive when you put a 3.75 or 4.00  grade average in your letter of application? Ah, you are smiling already.

Won’t it be a pleasure to get that old guy, Prof. Lechman, off your back? Geez, the guy is relentless. “I’d get a 4.5 just to shut him up.” 

 Just remember. Even if you cannot write a lick, if you attend class, turn your work in on time and revise and re-write to the professor’s satisfaction, you will succeed wonderfully. “That’s right,” I hear a student saying. “I will never give up.”

Now that’s the right answer.

Don Lechman is a former reporter, critic and editor for The Daily Breeze. He tries to teach writing at Harbor College in Wilmington.