Education & Motivation

By Captain Bob Webb

Developing a productive life style with at-risk youth.

This section can be very helpful for people whose skills are becoming obsolete. The technique for starting over in midlife is the same for people who established a career outside the formal education system.

The formal education system was a disaster for me. In the 1950s, when I was in high school, problem students were encouraged to drop out, which I did. I found alternative education methods that led me to a productive life style. Now retired, I have recorded my experiences and analyses.

Youth Motivation Concepts Overview: This website is designed to help people who are in conflict with classroom environments. These people could excel if placed in a project based education system. Leaders whose ideas changed the way we live, from developers of the light bulb to the computer, were in conflict with classroom environments. They acquired professional skills with projects. Academics was acquired as needed and to the level needed to achieve their goals.
How to Make Dreams Come True... My Story: We must have a dream that motivates us. No one has ever achieved anything without a dream attached to a burning desire. We must learn how-to-learn. In school, we learn how to memorize, and be taught. Learning how to learn frees our dependency on others for knowledge. We must learn from failure and learn how to bounce back from failure. No one ever succeed without failure. In the classroom, failure is a no-no.
Why Self Discovery: The concept is based on recognizing natural talents, intellectual, artiest, technical, dexterous, and recognizing the need for non-competitive education to address these talents. For example, everyone in a classroom does not have artist ability. Different abilities need to be recognized. In non-competitive learning environment, anyone can excel.

Discover! Then Develop Your Natural Talent
Motivation is education. Education without motivation kills ambition, the primary ingredient for a productive lifestyle.	When a person discovers their natural talent, they are like a fast moving freight train, there is no stopping them. They will find a way to develop their talent, with or without support from society.
Lectures provide knowledge. Hands-on projects builds confidence.	"Give a person an idea and you enrich their life. Teach a person how to learn and they can enrich their own life" - Author Unknown
Working on an automobile is project based education that builds productive skills. Sailing a boat is project based education that builds confidence. Criminal activity is project based education that leads to self-destruction.

	The Search for Our Destiny Exploring and discovery awakens our inner self, creating a desire to learn more about the world around us, setting in motion a vision. A vision is the source of all achievement.
The compass symbolizes our direction in life.			The sextant symbolizes our current position in life.
	Learning how to learn.	Discovery of natural talent is motivation.
Learning with projects.			Learning with responsibility.
	The chart symbolizes our desired destination in life. Projects and the associated opportunity is the ship that gets us there.
The Power of Projects Projects require a goal where students must search for a method, acquire skills and knowledge, accept failure and bounce back from it, and keep trying until the goal is achieved. They learn through experiences, more important, they learn how to research and apply knowledge. Success is measured by the complexity of the project and the ability to finish it. This type of education motivates one to learn more about the world we live in while creating a lifetime love to learn. The laws' of nature is the motivator and instructor. A booklet is available about projects at downloads.

Notes:

Dependency kills motivation. Long term dependency on parents, the government or others, takes away the ambition to become self-reliance.
When you discover your natural talent, barriers to motivation and learning will evaporate.
Customize education to the teenager's learning personality, a love to learn will emerge that will last a lifetime.
Super achievers learned how to learn in natural learning environments. They are processors of knowledge that is based on a burning desire that motivates them. The typical classroom is a collector of knowledge with limited motivation.
Why do some high school dropouts become self-made millionaires? Do they hold the secret to a success personality? Consider that their skills were NOT molded by classroom environments. Society says these people should never have found success. What do these self-made millionaires have that many highly educated people don’t have? Why doesn't the education system learn and adapt the secrets of these people. Answer, social prejudice in the formal education system. Education leaders want to believe their system is the only way.
Just because a student gets "Fs" in every class does not mean they don't want to learn or excel, THEY DO! EVERY TEENAGER DOES! They need a different learning environment other than classrooms. Not everyone can learn in passive classroom environments.

Additional Information

Mindset of Street Gangs
Wiz Kids go to Jail
Tools for Developing Your Lifestyle has many of these topics in PDF format.

The information at this website is based on my experiences and resources that agree with my experiences. I welcome any comments you may have.

Education & Motivation

By Captain Bob Webb

Discover! Then Develop Your Natural Talent

The Search for Our Destiny

Notes:

Additional Information