Reply to The most desirable elementary/ms/hs boundary neighborhoods and schools for motivated kids?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]never heard of a kid in elementary school describing themselves as motivated, must be a tiger parent who must have their child be the best[/quote]

This has nothing to do with tiger parents. Humans are naturally driven by reward seeking behavior. This is why kids enjoy playing games, want to win, score higher etc. Positive praise is the cornerstone of good parenting. Kids learn manners and good behaviors by being praised and they seek this praise as a reward. By the time a kid enters elementary school, they seek rewards beyond their parents. Even the less motivated kids are very aware of whether they received the highest grade or the lowest grade and what it took to get there. Regardless of how the parents feel, some kids care greatly about this type of reward and other children care less. Note: the children that care less are not less bright or lazy. They simply have a different cost/value/reward seeking personality. They may be highly motivated by winning a game to support their team mates.

In a system that rewards actual achievement, academically oriented reward motivated students do great. They perform at or above their academic capabilities. The grades or rewards motivate them that working hard pays off. All these kids need to do great is a fair description of what is expected and they will work to achieve it. In the MCPS system achievement is by design is never rewarded. MCPS dangles an ES but the practice that it is not consistently given and more random hits these kids hard. When you add in how easy it is to get a P you've just just destroyed the reward structure that these kids thrive in. These kids either decide it isn't fair or they just can never be good enough so they stop working hard. They don't feel better about working less just deflated.

Imagine a sports game where in order to win, a team would need to score 5 times more than the other team. Let's say that the team did this and all of sudden the ref said no winner, I just decided you needed you need a score 7 times more. The next day the other team scores only twice more than the other team and the ref declares them the winner because today its 2 times. The motivation of the team would go out to window because the reward structure is no known to be unfair and random. [/quote]

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