From time immemorial, people have been trying to figure out how to teach others. The incessant question has been, “How can I get someone to want to learn something and to learn it well?” Countless methods have been tried and tested, but only one stands above the rest as the most effective. Let’s go through each of the following teaching devices and try to gauge their efficacy.
Punishment. This teaching device has thus far proven to be the most destructive and least effective in getting someone to learn something. Envision two strict parents pushing their child on to success while using threats in the process. This is known as fear conditioning and can only go so far in getting the child to excel academically. Ultimately, there is a terrible trade-off to consider here: the child may succeed in academics but may fail miserably in so many other areas—he or she may end up emotionally unfulfilled or socially inept. Such a child may also grow up to be meek and unassertive, too afraid to try anything new for fear of the consequences. So, in general, punishment as a teaching device can be effective in teaching something, but it can never get someone to want to learn something and enjoy learning it. It’s probably best to stay away from teaching by instilling fear.
Encouragement with Reward. This teaching device looks awfully tantalizing…but don’t be fooled. This kind of teaching strategy only works with animals, at best. Throw a bone to a dog when she learns to roll over, give a sugar cube to a horse once he learns to jump over a short hurdle, heck, toss a fish to a dolphin after she figures out how to fly out of the water into a hoop—animals have no long-term sense, so encouragement of this kind works. The moment we hold a reward in front of a human being, all concentration of the task at hand is lost. A striking example is the didactic story of a Buddhist monk trying to attain Nirvana. In the most remote part of the Himalayas, a young monk asked his guru, “Master, how long will it take me to reach Enlightenment?” to which his guru replied, “10 years.” The monk then asked, “What if I work incredibly hard and practice austerities rigorously every day?” to which his guru said, “20 years!” Finally, the monk asked, “Master, what if I forgo every worldly pleasure and focus with single-minded dedication upon reaching Nirvana?” His master then answered, “At least 30 years! My boy, if you focus so determinedly upon the goal, how can you expect yourself to concentrate on the way to reach the goal? You are so focused on the future fruits that you cannot get yourself to stay grounded in the present reality.” In other words, a future reward serves only to distract us from the tasks of the present and fails to get us to learn something for what it truly is.
Encouragement without Reward. Here is the humble winner that stands above any other teaching device. Giving encouragement without promising reward is a teaching device that is the most effective in getting someone to learn something, wanting to learn it, and enjoying learning it. According to Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People, by using this kind of encouragement, “[T]he good things people do will be reinforced and the poorer things will atrophy for lack of attention” (217). That is, it’s the very act of knowing we can do something that pushes us to do it. That knowledge is reward enough. It fills us with buoyant motivation and fresh confidence to do a particular task and to do it well. In short, use this teaching device if you want to get someone to want to learn something and to learn it well.
