Building Boys Bulletin 2-14-22

Passion = motivation = learning

My son, the 16 yr old who was late to school last week because he spent most of the night working on his snowmobile, won a trophy for his efforts.

He took 3rd place in the unstudded trail class, a race composed of 3 laps around a 2 mile twisty turny trail. On ice. “Unstudded” means that the track of the snowmobile is unstudded, which means it’s more difficult to control on ice.

I arrived at the event at 7 am, 3 hours before race time, because my son needed a parent to sign a waiver so he could race. Teenage boys and young men sat bunched together at tables, filling out paperwork. It was not lost on me that most of these guys, like my son, probably hate(d) school. Most of them probably got in trouble for wriggling. They probably hated sitting down to do worksheets. But with the right motivation — a chance to participate in an activity they love — they were hunched over and filling out forms at 7 am on a Saturday.

THIS is what is missing in so many schools: respect for boys’ passions. Space, time, and support to pursue their passions. Curious little boys (and girls) are told time and again to sit down, be quiet, and do what they’re told. To succeed in school, they must shift their focus to whatever happens to be on the curriculum. We ask our students to adapt to school, rather than adapting schooling to our students.

That’s a mistake because true learning flows from passion. When