Bird Droppings January 14, 2026
Learning and teaching are not the same, yet they intertwine.

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.” Dr. Mortimer J. Adler

Dr. Adler founded the Center for the Study of Great Ideas and served as Chairman of the Board of Editors for Encyclopedia Britannica, with a focus on Philosophy and Liberal Education. One of my traditional writing assignments when I was teaching was to have students write an essay for one hundred twenty-five words, and you get seventy percent; for two hundred fifty words, you get eighty percent, three hundred seventy-five words for ninety percent, and five hundred words for one hundred percent, and your choice of plain or peanut M&M’s. The title of the essay was “How Should I be taught?” I work with students using their research, finding and using quotes, and citing authors, so copy-and-paste was used to bulk up a feeble attempt. In a class, I did this with three students. Five hundred words, one fell asleep, he didn’t feel good, and two only made one hundred and twenty-five words.

The funny thing is, I deliberately do this by writing on the whiteboard and never ask anyone to work. One of the first completed in one class was a student who doesn’t care, wants to quit school, and uses the great word “whatever” more times a day than his entire vocabulary.

“Our schools are not turning out young people prepared for the high office and the duties of citizenship in a democratic republic. Our political institutions cannot thrive; they may not even survive, if we do not produce a greater number of thinking citizens, from whom some statesmen of the type we had in the eighteenth century might eventually emerge. We are, indeed, a nation at risk, and nothing but radical reform of our schools can save us from impending disaster. Whatever the price we must pay in money and effort to do this, the price we will pay for not doing it will be much greater.” Dr. Mortimer J. Adler

So, a student did an assignment for a pack of M&M’s. Is that amazing? I have, over the years, grown away from extrinsic motivation, but I still occasionally point things out to kids. In this case, I did not have to coerce, beg, ask, or even remind students; I wrote on the board and started the day’s assignment. Of all my students, the one who finishes first in that one period is the only one I must push constantly. The rest knew my tricks. I did give him a pack of M&M’s, and you know what, his essay, while not the greatest, was complete a first. Since returning to the teaching field, I have found several key factors affecting teacher-student involvement, especially in high school. First, the student must want to be in that class; in the same light, the student must have a reason for what they are doing, one that is relevant to that student. It has to be their reason, not one imposed by a teacher, and ideally, it will become a self-fulfilling purpose and/or reason to acquire more information, learn more, and move on in life.

Initially, it may be a pack of M&M’s, but the point of that exercise was to see whether this student, given a motivator, would try rather than say, “I do not care, I am not doing the work.” Interesting note: later in the day, I received an email questionnaire about his progress on goals related to his IEP. I have had this student for a total of five weeks and reviewed his goals, many of which are based on motivation and at least trying. Options to answer are introduced (I) and progressing, and of course a P, and then mastered and a capital M. His case manager said I ruined his report; I said I was progressing on all counts and was optimistic, while others said the opposite. I have a major issue: how can you be teaching if a student is not progressing at all?

“If, in some way, the generations to come would learn what a good life is and how to achieve it and could be given the discipline, not only of mind but of character, that would make them willingly responsive to the categorical ought’s of a teleological ethics, perhaps, then, the moral and educational revolution might begin and take hold. To hope for this is to hope for no more than that the restoration of a sound and practical moral philosophy will enable enlightened common sense to prevail in human affairs.” Dr. Mortimer J. Adler

The idea and organization Paideia is an educational concept founded again by Dr. Adler. The principles of this organization are as follows:

PAIDEIA PRINCIPLES
1. That all children can learn;
2. That, therefore, they all deserve the same quality of schooling, not just the same quantity;
3. that the quality of schooling to which they are entitled is what the wisest parents would wish for their children, the best education for the best being the best education for all;
4. That schooling at its best is preparation for becoming generally educated in the course of a whole lifetime, and those schools should be judged on how well they provide such preparation.
5. that the three callings for which schooling should prepare all Americans are (a) to earn a decent livelihood, (b) to be a good citizen of the nation and the world, and (c) to make a good life for oneself;
6. That the primary cause of genuine learning is the activity of the learner’s mind, sometimes with the help of a teacher functioning as a secondary and cooperative cause;
7. that the three kinds of teaching that should occur in our schools are didactic teaching of subject matter, coaching that produces the skills of learning, and Socratic questioning in seminar discussion:
8. That the results of these three kinds of teaching should be (a) the acquisition of organized knowledge, (b) the formation of habits of skill in the use of language and mathematics, and (c) the growth of the mind’s understanding of basic ideas and issues;
9. That each student’s achievement of these results should be evaluated in terms of that student’s capacities and not solely related to the achievements of other students;
10. That the principal of a school should never be a mere administrator, but also a leading teacher who should cooperate with the faculty in planning, reforming, and reorganizing the school as an educational community;
11. That the principal and faculty of a school should themselves be actively engaged in learning; and
12. The desire to continue their learning should be the prime motivation of those who dedicate their lives to the profession of teaching.
Copyright © 1991 by The Paideia Group, Inc. The Paideia Group, Inc. Board of Directors: John Clark, Rosa Blackwell, Vann Langston, Rita Kaplan, Cindy Rutz, John Van Doren, and Patricia Weiss. Honorary Chairman is Mortimer Adler

I read through these principles and was somewhat intrigued, especially in points eleven and twelve, that the principal and faculty of a school should themselves be actively engaged in learning; and that the desire to continue their learning should be the prime motivation of those who dedicate their lives to the profession of teaching. I have mentioned numerous times over the past years that Henry David Thoreau left the teaching field to become a learner. Thoreau felt that to teach, you have to be a learner first. Several years ago, while working on a paper for graduate school, I used the word “osmosis” as a metaphor for teacher-student feedback. The student I first mentioned, who did not care about school, was motivated by finding a reinforcer.

Borrowing from the great behaviorist B.F. Skinner for every behavior, there is an antecedent, and then there is a consequence. We can change behavior by changing the consequence and or the antecedent. Ideally, we would like the antecedents and consequences to become intrinsic, but to get the ball rolling, sometimes an extrinsic means can and will work. But extrinsic means generally are only temporary solutions, short of electric shock, which is illegal in most states.

“If acquisition of the liberal arts is an intrinsic part of human dignity, then the democratic ideal demands that we should strive to see to it that all have the opportunity to attain to the fullest measure of the liberal arts that is possible to each.” Robert M. Hutchison, The Great Conversation

“The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motivational life of man that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?” Albert Einstein

I have used this quote from Albert Einstein, and it is perhaps one of my favorites. How can we make our teaching so potent? We, as teachers, parents, and friends, need to actively pursue learning so that the children around us will see and model that behavior and want to learn for learning’s sake. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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