As I stand in the class and look at the poster I wonder if this type of motivation is the correct motivation. The poster reads “Students fail by choice.” I try hard but it becomes pretty hard to understand what good this poster serves. I know that the audience is a student and the purpose is to have the student understand that their choices are powerful. Choices are powerful that is true but to say that a Student fails by choice seems a bit simplistic.
Critical thinking and decision making can be difficult often we want to satisfy our immediate desires in spite of damage that can result in the future. Obviously we want to teach our students the importance of critical thinking and decision making and one way to teach them is a scare tactic like the poster points out however, I cannot help but put myself back into my shoes in school and consider how many poor choices I made and wonder how dire the consequences actually were.
I had a pretty amazing support structure with family and community while growing up. My parents, other family members, teachers and community members did a great job to make sure that I was safe healthy and that I could drive. There were moments when my parents “got real’ with me and used some scare tactics but they were few and far between definitely not enough moments to warrant the creation of a poster about them,
I know that choices matter however I do not think anyone ever choices to fail. I think everyone wants to win and when we see someone who seems to choice failure they are making a choice that seems like winning because of how dire their situation is. Perhaps instead of scaring a student time would be better spent understanding how that student sees the world and maybe opening their perspectives so that they can make a better choice.
The Corrigan Encore 