Motivation: The Key to Education

Many people consider themselves a success in school and/or education in today’s time.

But what does it actually mean to be successful in education? Are these people that are claiming to have won in the educational system truly successful, or are they just being a target of a huge misunderstanding in which they simply think they have won yet they have truly lost? Now this is a pretty simple question in which it may seem that there is only one answer to this. But in my mind, there is actually no correct or defined answer to this question, because everybody most likely has a different answer to what a true winner in education is. To me though, a true winner in education is one that has shown genuine interest in learning and with that interest motivating him/her, he/she is able to overcome any obstacle in one’s way to make sure that they are getting the education that they deserve. And I do not say this just because this is how I feel, I also say this because out of all the articles and texts I have read in this class, I have come to this understanding. Now with all that being said, there is one thing that bothers me.

Everything that we have discussed in class is all about what makes someone successful in education and what things in education prevent us from doing so. But only once did we talk about what actually makes somebody a loser in education and even when we did talk about that I did not get a satisfying answer. To truly understand what a winner in education is, I feel like it is needed to know what a loser is. This is actually why I used the pieces of texts to come to an understanding of a winner in education with their authors setting epitomes of that. Along with that though, I also used personal experiences to add to my definition and support it.

My education personally, has not been the best if I think about it. Now don’t get me wrong, my school life in general has been amazing. But when it comes to education specifically and how successful I have been in it, it is something that I am not exactly proud of. If I had to create a story about my education and how successful I have been throughout my years in school, then it would actually most likely not have a happy ending. Then again I have not yet completed school, so all I can do is predict. Here, let me explain.

When I first entered school in kindergarten, I was a very shy boy. I did not know anybody in the whole school (besides my sister), yet I had this spark of curiosity, and this drive to go to school and finally be able to learn. Although I do not remember vivid details from this year, I do know for a fact that every single morning I woke up, I was excited to go to school and learn. In fact, whenever I had a long weekend or even a normal weekend, I would be waiting for school to start up again just because I was enjoying it so much. Now it may seem as if I am over exaggerating this, but this is actually the truth and there is a huge reason behind it.

During this year of school, I was very new to the system which made everything so interesting. So with that being said, I could come to a conclusion of saying that new things usually equal more interest. Now pay close attention to the word “usually” in that statement because it is not true for everything. But people are probably wondering how this relates to actual education, since barely anything is taught in Kindergarten besides simple fundamentals. So let me go on and explain my other years in the education system. Not only my Kindergarten year, but all of my elementary school years went much of the same way.

I know for a fact that going to school to learn or do anything else did not ever bother me the least bit, in all five years of my elementary school. But when I moved to my intermediate school for the fifth and sixth grade, some things began to change. When I was first going to transition into this school, I had made big goals of working hard and getting good grades and that is actually what happened. But it took a little more work than I expected and that threw my whole attitude about school off. During this year of school, I had realized that school can’t all just be fun and games and easy.

Now I did not yet lose interest in school, but the work that I had to do in order to maintain grades was actually the thing that was making me a little uncomfortable. Due to this I somewhat began to slack off in school my 6th grade year and when we had to take an end-of-the year assessment which determined some of the classes we would take in middle school, I did not do that well. And this actually leads to my experience in middle school, which was when my spark of interest was actually beginning to drift away. Middle school was the time in my life that actually changed everything about me. The kid that used to complete all of his work on time and would get all A’s on his report card turned into a kid who turned in many homeworks way past their deadlines and began to get B’s and C’s as a normal grade. Now due to the 6th grade test that I had taken, I was not able to take an advanced math or science class which actually meant that it would make school easier for me.

But the exact opposite actually happened and I ended up doing worse and worse in school. Although this was a factor in my degrading success in school, it was not a major one. One major factor that I think made myself lose majority of my interest in school was lectures, note-taking, and daily textbook homeworks. Now I admit that these things are tools that will help you in learning, but when this is done every single day, all day, in every single class, it gets a little boring and annoying. The engaging activities that used to be done in school were now slowly vanishing. But since this was only middle school, and it did not matter much in college decisions, I thought that it was no big deal if I screwed up because I was going to work my butt off in High School.

But guess what, my habits from middle school most definitely carried over to my high school. Now finally getting to the most important years of education, high school, I can say that I had lost almost all of my interest in school at this point. There were still some classes that I cared about and would enjoy, but most of them were just boring lecture classes that I hated. I am currently in my third year of highschool and in my past two years, I have actually messed up my grades a lot. Here in high school, all I have experienced is coming to class every day to expect a boring and long lecture about some stuff that I have no interest in and having to write notes on it even though I don’t know what I am writing. Because of this, I have gotten horrible grades and as of now I am calling myself a loser in education.

Now with my whole school life being laid out, I have been able to do some introspection on what things have held me back from becoming a successfully educated young being. With doing that I have realized that there was actually nothing holding me back besides myself. I have actually realized that to be successful in education, all that needs to be done is keep interest. If you keep the interest in school and learning, then everything else that is good will follow along with it. For example, if you keep interest in the topic, then that means you will learn it quicker and you will actually have the drive to learn it. Then due to that, you will be able to quickly complete your homework/quizzes/tests.

Because of this, you will obtain and maintain good grades. Grades are merely a reflection of what you know and if you have the interest, then you will definitely work hard to learn those things. Now if my educational life is used as an example, many people might say that things such as homework and lectures were holding me back and I was doing good in my early years because of the types of activities my school offered. But the truth is that none of this is true. All these things that were supposedly holding me back were just obstacles that could be overcome and the engaging activities were just a way of helping kids stay interested, although it could be done without them.

So if there was a motto that I had to live by to stay successful in education, it would be “don’t let the lack of interest get to you and if you are not interested in something, then suck it up and be interested!”.