Motivate with Mistakes

A student once suggested to me that: curiosity is route to knowledge. The trick may be asking the right questions which stimulate our curiosity. Asking the right question may lead to other questions and other answers.

Here we have a special question mark. It is make up of other question marks. When we question something of interest, the mind and the body become oriented to it. (Click question mark to enlarge)Damon Weaver Asking Obama, 4min
Damon Weaver Interviews Obama, 10min

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes Wilde


Between the amateur and the professional...there is a difference not only in degree but in kind.

The skillful man is, within the function of his skill, a different integration, a different nervous and muscular and psychological organization...A tennis player or a watchmaker, or an airplane pilot is an automatism but he is also criticism and wisdom. Bernard De Voto

Pessimistic professions: law (Martin Seligman) (risk averse, Murphy's Law)
Others possible: medicine, hazardous work, teaching (esp in difficult schools), rabbis.
Speed and efficiency are part of some job, so it is hard for people to take the time to think of changes and practice changes.  And there is the push for data and more data, before trying any thing new.

The lack of mutual trust in some professions, can make it difficult for collaboration and criticism to happened

Resonance Controls (Dancing) Minds

The title of the blog, Study Max is meant to encourage more study and the activity of focusing one step at a time. There is no perfect way to study. Everyone has their own path to learning, step by step.

Love (Subway) Train SongVid  Video2min

Share Learning - 3

It is said that attitude is everything. Every student has a choice. He can wait to be spoon-fed, or he can study on his own.

Tangible Results Motivate - 4 (Discovery Flips)

Without effort study cannot happen. Tying a string to fingers suggests memory. It takes time and effort to remember what we are trying to learn.

One way to appreciate what we learn is to focus on things that are discovered and have special value to us and to others.

For example, learning that two plus two is four is a skill. But finding an unusual way to add large numbers, might be seen as a useful discovery. One discovery might lead to another discovery and this might motivate us to keep learning more. We may sense turning points in our lives, as a results of our discoveries.

My Education Story

I started writing about the problem of education, eighteen years ago, in Jan 1996 with a essay on stress and relaxation in schools. I continued writing letters to a Rochester newspapers on and off since then.

But it was in Dec, 2011, that I did demonstrated a simple tangible idea, the EASY button. (include transcript)



Read: Kids Extreme Media Use

Seek Recipes to Engage - 6

Much of what is learned in schools is motivated by grades and testing. But we can learn much more if we study more that we have to to get good grades.

Child - Parent Homework - 7

Learning is constantly under the guidance of our teachers, parents, book authors, other students, etc. Giving credit to the people who guide learning can add to study.

Learn to Relax / Relax to Learn - 8

Learning can be very stressful, to the point where it just stops happening. Just being told what to do over and over can be stressful. Cramming can be stressful. Students are always being tested and evaluated.

So it might make sense to try to step back from the stress and try to relax, so that more learning can happen.

Organize to Simplify Learning - 9

Study can be helped with some organization or pattern. The fisherman casts his net over an area and brings in the catch.

So to, when we study we can collect ideas and examine them to see what value they might have and how they might fit together.

SCREEN OFF - MIND OPEN - 10

The value of learning needs to be sold in some way to motivate the student. But selling the lesson can, in itself, encourage learning. Why is it important to know such and such?

History of Screen Addiction - 11

Einstein on a bicycle suggests to me that idea that the mind, the brain is stimulated by circulating activity, which tends to focus its direction.

Cellphone Nation - 12

Study can take on greater meaning when it is done with specific questions in mind. Here are the six basic questions we can ask.

Breaking the Habit - 13

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Mind Open - 14

Study can be driven by the desire to influence the opinions of others and vice versa.

Imagination and Curiosity - 15

When we learn, we make mistakes of all kinds. Mistakes can inhibit the learning process, or they can make it more interesting.

Overcome Learning Blocks - 16

The mind has rhythms of its own, like music

 Also, we need more honesty, as suggested by Prof. Dan Ariely. in his new film being produced

Forgeting and Remembering - 17

Rate Study Effort - 19

I believe we can make study more interesting and more successful with stories, real and imagined. We can use stories about learning experiences, as well.