[ Motivation ]

Motivation is something that is fundamental in the learning process of every person. If there is a lack of it, this process becomes extremely difficult, due to the fact that the learner has no willingness to attain any knowledge. But, if in fact the learner has plenty of motivation, this makes him/her eager to attain what is being taught.

Motivation may have plenty of factors that can affect it, being home background, how tired is the learner or just his/her personality, some of these, but I must say, that I totally agree with Andrew Littlejohn’s essay, where he states that previous experiences can model a predisposition to deal with a class. If children have had awful teachers and they feel that thanks to that, they are not going to get anything from their classes, even if they get the best teacher, their predisposition in front of these cases, will be negative and it will also create an environment lacking from students motivation. As a matter of fact, during my time as a school/high school student, we had constant changes of teachers, which took them to a constant struggle to get and maintain our attention, especially as we were growing up. I must say, that as time goes by, it is more and more difficult to get people's attention, and, for this, keep them motivated.

To keep and constantly “feed” children’s self-esteem and confidence, in my opinion, is another issue that is one of the bases of motivation (along with willingness). Children measure their educational and personal development according to how successful they are, and if this is not taken serious, this might generate really important problems in children’s motivation regarding their education.

This is why it is very important to encourage children’s motivation since they are young, in order to generate students that can feel part of their education. If students feel part of something this makes them eager to learn and the learning process easier.

Littlejohn, Andrew. "Motivation: Where does it come from? Where does it go?" English Teaching Professional, April 2001: 5-8.

[ Creativity ]

I must admit that I really enjoyed this exposition of creativity by Ken Robinson, and also have to say that I totally agree with him. Creativity, nowadays, is being left aside. As Robinson states, at school, teachers (and educators in general) are focusing on children's "head" more than their body as a whole. The most important subjects at school are math, languages and cience, but arts are just a complementary knowledge.

I felt, as same as Robinson, that it is essential to focus on children’s creativity, due to that they are independent thinkers that need have feelings and proper ideas, that need to be expressed as individuals. But this is not what really happens. The educational system restrains this and, in some way, automates the learning and their (children) way of thinking and expressions.

Children are being educated to not be wrong, and to do things as they are taught, leaving no room for creativity. Young boys and girls, should be able to try different things in order to develop some result and to acquire (and develop) new knowledge.

As Sir Ken Robinson states, the educational system discourages children when they want to be something different than a professional. With this I mean that, in our time, when you state that you would like to be a painter, an actor or a handcrafter, people says that you are crazy and that you are going to starve for not getting enough money. If you see at schools, art and music programs are left at the bottom of children’s learning priorities. This due to that, the educational system main concern is to give the essential tools to become a successful (in terms of money and social acceptance) professional, more than a happy individual.

Robinson, Ken. "Schools kill creativity", TED. Filmed February 2006, posted June 2006. Online May 15 2009. "http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html"