"We have created an educational system in which nearly all formal learning is forced in some way.  Nearly all formal learning is subject to assessment, because we tend to assume that students need to be “motivated” to learn.  That is, we have created a system in which the kind of easy, “natural” learning of the streets and fields that John Dewey wanted to see brought into schools is not generally expected to happen.  Our system is based on the belief that we cannot give students a choice about whether they should learn, say, algebra or not, because we fear the results, and it is clearly believed thatto “motivate” them to learn algebra we need to assess them and allot benefits in school and in life in proportion to how well they manage."    —Kieran Egan

Selective disinterest

The belief that students need grades to be motivated is almost universally held true by both teachers and students.  It is based entirely on a lack of trust in a student’s willingness to learn.  But a lack of trust is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Little children do not need grades to learn; indeed, it’s impossible to prevent them from learning.  Their motivation to learn about the world around them is hard-wired and irrepressible.  

Older students, when they are learning something non-academic, can be found to have boundless energy and enthusiasm for learning without any need for goading or bribing.  Watch them at a basketball practice or rehearsing a play or participating in any of a dozen extracurricular activities: their dedication and enthusiasm are contagious, even exhausting.  They feel a sense of belonging and ownership.  They are having fun.

Now watch them in their Algebra or U.S. History class.  The same students who were bursting with exuberance and humor have taken on a new persona, and it’s often a visibly dispirited one.  Why does this happen?  What is their problem?  Or is it a problem with school?

I would argue that grades cause students to be unmotivated to learn.  I will talk more about grades below, but in the meantime, let it suffice to say that being motivated to do school and being motivated to learn are two very different things.  In fact, they are often mutually exclusive.  And, once again, teachers and students alike confuse the simulation for the thing that is being simulated.

Perverse incentives

"Even though some topics in high school are interesting, the reason we come to school is to get the grades.  As nice as it would be to learn because something is interesting, I really don’t think that happens in high school.  Especially because you don’t really take classes for your own enjoyment, you take them for credit and to get into college."               —Kay H., student

There is an old saying that amplifies Kay’s jaded perspective:  “For teachers, grades get in the way of learning; for students, learning gets in the way of grades.”  School teaches students (and their parents) that getting more points is how success is measured.  Over time, the grades become valuable for their own sake, and, in trying to achieve good grades, a student will be motivated to cut corners or even cheat to accomplish that goal.  Whether she is interested in the teacher’s learning goals is largely beside the point.

Grades are the currency of doing school.  Just as the desire to make money drives the economic system, the desire to accumulate points is what motivates many students to do the work of doing school.  Teachers who find themselves in legalistic arguments with students over grades often experience this behavior as a form of greed, which it is.  Academic materialism is pervasive among students who do well in school; for them, this is what drowns out the desire to learn out of curiosity or just for the sake of knowing something new.

It is a truism among teachers that one of the central impediments to learning is that “bad” students are unmotivated, while “good” students are inappropriately motivated by the desire to get good grades;  in many classrooms, enthusiastic, positive motivation to learn for the sake of learning is hard to come by.  What is not as well recognized is that this problem is a direct consequence of the belief that students aren’t capable of being internally motivated.    

It is important to remember that students didn’t start school with this strange aversion to learning.  They learned to act this way in school.  They are, in fact, unintentionally victimized by beliefs such as this one.  

This belief, like many that will follow, establishes a perverse incentive for students.  I am defining a perverse incentive as a policy that unwittingly motivates students to do the opposite of what was intended.  For example, consider the common policy of giving students points for completing their homework.  The intention is to encourage students to do the homework and learn from it.  What actually happens, though, is that students come to believe the reward of getting points is the actual purpose of the homework.  This leads to all kinds of unwanted behavior, including cheating, to get the work done and get the points.  

This is the nature of perverse incentives in a nutshell.  The teacher intended to reinforce learning;  in the end, learning was replaced with hollow activities that students often find boring and meaningless.  

Because student motivation is skewed, teachers have to use force to get them to learn, which is, of course, one of the central reasons they are so poorly (or perversely) motivated in the first place.  Students often resent this. as would anyone, and so a vicious cycle is set in motion.

What’s worse, the policy drives a wedge between the teacher and his students;  they are no longer working on a common goal.  As a result, there is a huge gap in what each feels is the very meaning of the work.  This leads to serious misunderstandings and mistrust, because teachers and students are not in it together.

Perverse incentives are the driving force behind students doing school, but they also affect other members of the system.  When teachers feel that they need to raise student test scores or grades, they will do what they need to to accomplish it, whether or not it has to do with learning.  

 Once you start noticing them, perverse incentives are everywhere.

“Why aren’t they more responsible?”

"When the people no longer trust themselves, they begin to depend on authority."     —Lao Tzu

Once, in the middle of a heated conversation in the teacher’s cafeteria, Bruce, a history teacher whom I respect a great deal, said “I’m so frustrated with my sophomores.  I try to help them make good choices, and they just won’t do it.  They miss deadlines, they can’t make even the smallest decision on their own or take the initiative.”

“Bruce, think about how much training they have had in making good choices,” I responded.  “Most of them have never had any real experience in school of deciding what to do for themselves.  The kind of freedom and responsibility you are asking of them is something that takes practice, and they haven’t had much.”

“Well, my students have that freedom,” Laura responds, somewhat indignantly.  “They can choose to do what I’ve asked of them, or not.  That’s up to them.  They know the consequences, and it’s their responsibility to do the work or choose not to.”

“Well, no offense, Laura, but that isn’t exactly what I meant by freedom.”  I didn’t say what I was feeling at that moment, because the conversation was right on the edge of getting unpleasant, and we were, after all, still eating lunch.  “I’m just saying that most of the time in most of their classes, your students are told what to do and are motivated by the grades we give them.  The idea that they would take the initiative and become responsible, self-motivated learners takes some training.

How can we expect students to become critical thinkers and responsible learners when they are, for all practical purposes, powerless in school?