Driven to Learn: All Children?

We had a professional development day last week, led by our amazing student services coordinator.  She presented on the physiology of ADHD and the strategies that can be applied to negate some of the executive functioning deficits that are often associated with the diagnosis.  Towards the end of her presentation she referred to a common catch-phrase question the many educators use when talking about student motivation, "Have you ever encountered a young child (2 or 3 year old) unmotivated to learn?"  The thought goes that children are born with an intrinsic motivation to learn, and we, as an educational institution, tend to squash that "love" of learning.  In the past, I've taken this point as fact and believed in a child's love of learning and curiosity, but for the first time, I had my doubts.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that children are curious and eager to learn.  They will continually explore their world to increase their understanding of it.  However, this learning is strictly relegated to an exploratory and self-driven act.  When a child is asked to learn something, i.e. washing their hands, using the toilet, brushing their teeth, they might not be as eager.  Why?  Are we presenting the material incorrectly?  Maybe?  But maybe it's just that the subject matter doesn't interest them.  Maybe, just maybe, they would rather be doing something else, learning about something else, than the thing which we want.

That's where school comes in to play.  It's our job, our privilege, as educators, to provide students with a wealth of knowledge and skills that will allow unlimited opportunity in the future.  Some of those skills, and some of that knowledge, may not be what a student wants to think about, explore, and learn about.  Therefore, it's not us, it's not the institution, that kills the desire to learn, it's simply human individuality.

We must continue to make learning fun, engaging, and relevant to students, but we must not beat ourselves up because we've killed a child's motivation to learn.  We have exposed a person to a new topic or area of study, that may, one day open up a door to their future.