BPL mentioned in Dan Pink’s new book, Drive, as schools that authentically motivate students!
Daniel H. Pink is the author of several provocative, bestselling books about the changing world of work.
His latest is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, which uses 40 years of behavioral science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation and offer a more effective path to high performance. Early reviews say that “Pink’s analysis–and new model–of motivation offers tremendous insight into our deepest nature” (Publishers Weekly) and call the book “important reading…an integral addition to a growing body of literature calling for a radical shift in how businesses operate” (Kirkus).
To learn more about Dan Pink, check out www.danpink.com.
Excerpted from page 180:
“…Although most schools around the world are still built atop the Motivation 2.0 operating system, a number of forward-thinking educators have long understood that young people are brimming with the third drive. Here are five Type I schools in the United States with practices to emulate and stories to inspire.
Big Picture Learning. Since 1996, with the opening of its flagship public high school, the Met, in Providence, RI, Big Picture Learning has been creating places that cultivate engagement rather than demand compliance. Founded by two veteran education innnovators, Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor, Big Picture is a nonprofit that now has sixty-plus schools around the United States that put students in charge of their own education. Big Picture kids get the basics. But they also use those basics and acquire other skills by doing real work in the community - all under the guidance of an experience adult tutor. And instead of easily gamed Motivation 2.0 measurements, Big Picture kids are assessed the way adults are - on work performance, individual presentations, effort, attitude, and behavior on the job. Most of the students at the Met and other Big Picture school are “at risk” low-income and minority kids who’ve been poorly served by conventional schools. Yet thanks to this innovative Type I approach, more than 95 percent graduate and go on to college…”