If only...............

How many times have you heard a teacher lament “if only these kids were motivated……” ??

Of course, the truth is that all kids (like all human beings) are motivated – just not always toward the goals that we have in mind for them! So our challenge as educators is to figure out how to connect with children and young people, how to draw them into the learning process so that they can become the confident, self-disciplined, independent thinkers that we want them to be.

Welcome to Choosing 2 Learn – a blog dedicated to the promotion of student engagement and achievement through the implementation of Choice Theory in the public schools of Derby, Connecticut.

Choice Theory is a comprehensive perspective on human behavior that has been developed and refined over the past forty years by Dr. William Glasser of Los Angeles. If you’re new to the topic, I suggest you visit the Glasser Institute’s web site at http://www.wglasser.com/.

For a detailed explanation of Choice Theory, see Glasser’s Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (Harper Perennial – 1998). And to understand how Choice Theory can transform an ordinary school into a vibrant community of learners, see The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion (Harper Perennial – 1990).

Choosing 2 Learn provides a forum for discussing the many elements of Choice Theory as they apply to life in general and to the improvement of schooling in particular. For those of us who are bold enough to apply these concepts to our work with students, Choosing 2 Learn is a place to tell our stories – what’s working, what’s not – and to find the encouragement and advice that we need to keep at it.

Rarely a day goes by when I don’t run across something that underscores the potential that Dr. Glasser’s work holds for the improvement of public education in America. With thanks to Mary Robinson Reynolds, here’s something that I found today……. http://www.connectionmovie.com/ .


Make it a great day!

Steve