Why Are Many Smart Students Not Motivated for Higher Education?

[Monster92]

So I've nearly finished school and, depending on my grades, may go to university.There's probably about 40 people out of 200 who are aiming for university.

Our school runs something called the 'Grammar Stream" and "Alpha Stream". Both these programmes allowed for 'talented students' to have special teaching and were even allowed to take extra qualifications. What's odd is that a large majority are not going to university :S a select few are on job seekers allowance and most have jobs that probably don't challenge their mind on a daily basis.

Sadly I wasn't put in either programme for good reasons. For many reasons I lack many skills although I do feel I've caught up. A lot of these people are my friends and being the only person outside these 'talented classes' I just to get some slack (as you can imagine). Strangely enough I'm going to university and hardly any of them are

What happened?

It's annoying. Many of these people have no motivation. I wish schools would segregate students based on motivation.

 

[JaredJames]

Being clever doesn't mean you have to do something with your life.

Neither does it mean you have to work hard or go to university.

Being clever and being motivated doesn't mean you will go to uni or further education. You are assuming being motivated only has one outcome.

You could incredibly intelligent and highly motivated but that motivation could be because you want to get a job at McDonalds. If that's your dream and what motivates you to work hard then good for you.

Wasted talent? Possibly.

Segregation sounds terrible. I find simply being around motivated people can get me into the spirit of things and motivate me to push on and work better.

 

[Pengwuino]

Segregation sounds terrible. I find simply being around motivated people can get me into the spirit of things and motivate me to push on and work better.

God and putting UNMOTIVATED people together? Holy hell! People with no motivation know how to just pull everyone down around them. Imagine putting a ton of them together. In a sense it's like a huge animal sacrifice

 

[Monster92]

Well yeah you both make good points. I don't see how segregating students based on ability works either. That was the one thing that demotivated me. Surely there's another way.

 

[Pengwuino]

Well yeah you both make good points. I don't see how segregating students based on ability works either. That was the one thing that demotivated me. Surely there's another way.

If you put a kid who knows calculus into a class with a kid who knows only basic algebra, 1 student is going to get screwed over. Segregation by ability works based on the resources available to schools.

 

[JaredJames]

God and putting UNMOTIVATED people together? Holy hell! People with no motivation know how to just pull everyone down around them. Imagine putting a ton of them together. In a sense it's like a huge animal sacrifice

I know people who you can feel pulling you down when you're around them (generally people I avoid). It's an odd sensation, but just being with them makes me lose focus and want to give up.

I find being in a motivated crowd of people highly beneficial. That and there's nothing better than having an incredibly motivated teacher.

I certainly wouldn't put unmotivated people in a room together, the combined 'downer' effect of all those minds would be a force of can't be botheredness unlike anything imaginable and could overwhelm the entire school!

 

[Pengwuino]

I certainly wouldn't put unmotivated people in a room together, the combined 'downer' effect of all those minds would be a force of can't be botheredness unlike anything imaginable and could overwhelm the entire school!

A recent study was done where simulations showed a education-spacetime singularity forming if the unmotivated/motivated student ratio reaches R_{mot} = .8 that is capable of consuming everything that tries to teach it.

 

[JaredJames]

A recent study was done where simulations showed a education-spacetime singularity forming if the unmotivated/motivated student ratio reaches R_{mot} = .8 that is capable of consuming everything that tries to teach it.

 

[Vagn]

I know people who you can feel pulling you down when you're around them (generally people I avoid). It's an odd sensation, but just being with them makes me lose focus and want to give up.

I find being in a motivated crowd of people highly beneficial. That and there's nothing better than having an incredibly motivated teacher.

I certainly wouldn't put unmotivated people in a room together, the combined 'downer' effect of all those minds would be a force of can't be botheredness unlike anything imaginable and could overwhelm the entire school!

Trying to learn optics does that for me... It's a motivational black hole.