Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM On Motivation Students will only learn if they want to. Contrary to commonly held parent's opinion, children are not inherently resistant to instruction. All student failures can be directly attributable to teacher failure. Given the right motivation learning will take place. The instructional problem is to make the learning take place in the right direction. For, whatever reason, much student motivation tends to be in the wrong direction. I found that teaching gambling was always easier than teaching good behavior. Learning is keyed to motivation. Threats will work to a degree, but soon wear out. Margaret Meade, the great anthropologist once told me that we should pay children to go to school, with the pay scale based on achievement. Many student pilots of a younger age are motivated into learning to fly because of the promise of future compensation. Older students are trying to recover the dreams of their youth. egardless, a student pilot must be motivated to overcome the sure to come failures, plateaus, and frustrations that are a part of learning to fly. Every flying success serves as a motivator. It is essential that the instructor provide in each lesson a series of achievable goals that challenge and satisfy the motivational needs of the student. Nothing is as defeating to a student as false praise. The instructor must be creative in finding motivators. One of my most satisfying experiences as a public school teacher was when I was able to motivate an entire class to excel in spelling lessons just by correcting the papers during class and pretending that I really enjoyed making red check marks on missed words. Surprising how hard the kids would work to keep me from enjoying correcting spelling. Do whatever it takes to motivate. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM