Motivating adolescents by supporting them

B.

By Jamianne Kruse
EDI 17 Psychology & Development of Adolescent Students

School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
February 18, 2010
 

Motivation is a very important aspect of education. Motivation can either help or hurt the learning process. Today in class we watched the movie October Sky. This movie clearly demonstrated the effects of motivation on an individual.
  

In this movie there was a group of boys who had dreams of a bigger future. In this town everyone’s future was predetermined by the mines. Higher education in this small town was extremely rare; however these boys were determined to break the “norm”.
 

Motivation had a very large impact on these boys throughout the movie. It had both positive and negative effects on these boys. For example, Homer’s dad insisted that his desire for success was impractical and that his future was in the mines. This can be a very discouraging experience for an individual. Personally, I can relate to an experience like this when I was in high school. When I was younger I was always told that I couldn’t sing. My mom would always tell me to shut up (which wasn’t very nice). However, when I took chorus in high school, I realized how much I loved singing and that I wasn’t actually that bad. Through my teacher’s encouragement I was able to put aside my hesitation and practice what I really enjoyed. As a result, I made the all county chorus which consisted of a select number of top singers to represent a chorus for Nassau County.
 

In my experience, my teachers support was very important to my success. Without that I wouldn’t have accomplished as much if not nothing at all. This is exactly what happened to Homer and his friends. His teacher believed in them and for the boys, this was enough to help them strive for success.