Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Type I for Parents and Educators Nine Ideas for Helping Our Kids

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Drive Dan Pink

APPLY THE THREE-PART TYPE I TEST FOR HOMEWORK D

Type I for Parents and Educators Nine Ideas for Helping Our Kids
All kids start out as curious, self-directed Type Is. But many of them end up as disengaged, compliant Type X’s. What’s going on Maybe the
problem is us—the adults who are running schools and heading families. If we want to equip young people for the new world of work—and, more
important, if we want them to lead satisfying lives—we need to break Motivations grip on education and parenting.
Unfortunately, as with business, there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what schools do. Science knows (and you do, too, if you read
Chapter 2) that if you promise a preschooler a fancy certificate for drawing a picture, that child will likely draw a picture for you—and then lose further
interest in drawing. Yet in the face of this evidence—and as the world economy demands more nonroutine, creative, conceptual abilities—too many
schools are moving in the wrong direction. They’re redoubling their emphasis on routines, right answers, and standardization. And they’re hauling out
a wagon full of “if-then” rewards—pizza for reading books, iPods for showing up to class, cash for good test scores. We’re bribing students into
compliance instead of challenging them into engagement.
We can do better. And we should. If we want to raise Type I kids, at school and at home, we need to help them move toward autonomy, mastery, and
purpose. Here are nine ways to start the journey.

APPLY THE THREE-PART TYPE I TEST FOR HOMEWORK
Does the homework bulging from kids backpacks truly help them learn Or does it simply steal their free time in the service of a false sense of rigor?
Teachers, before you dole out yet another time-consuming assignment, run it through this Type I homework test by asking yourself three questions Am I offering students any autonomy over how and when to do this work Does this assignment promote mastery by offering a novel, engaging task (as opposed to rote reformulation of something already covered in class Do my students understand the purpose of this assignment That is, can they see how doing this additional activity at home contributes to the larger enterprise in which the class is engaged?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, can you refashion the assignment And parents, are you looking at homework assignments every so often to see whether they promote compliance or engagement Let’s not waste our kids time on meaningless exercises. With a little thought and effort, we can then homework into homelearning.

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