The holiday season is upon us and kids everywhere are telling parents what they want. For a moment, let’s focus on what your kids truly need to be happy. It won’t cost you a dime. It only requires time and effort to raise your kids to be happy, responsible, and productive.
What is Choice Theory? Developed by psychiatrist William Glasser, Choice Theory states we are motivated by a never-ending quest to satisfy the following 5 basic needs woven into our genes: to love and belong, to be powerful, to be free, to have fun and to survive.
As teachers head back to school for another year, most have developed goals for the coming school year. Virtually every expert champions the importance of establishing clear, specific goals if you want to be successful. In my experience, goals are necessary but not sufficient to create an inspiring classroom. Sure, goals are essential. Teachers need to know where they want to go in order to select the best strategies to get there. And goals work just fine when you are operating in isolation. For example, if I decide I need to lose weight, setting a goal of dropping five pounds [...]
My wife and I recently spent some time in Sedona, Arizona, one of our favorite places. As part of our timeshare experience, we agreed to listen to the sales pitch. Near the end of the presentation, the salesperson said, “I want you to imagine that you didn’t have to worry about going to work. You were completely free. Isn’t that a wonderful feeling? Wouldn’t you want to have more vacation time? No worries. Just vacation. All the time.” At that moment, I just wanted the presentation to be over and didn’t think our salesperson was especially interested in a serious [...]
Control Theory is the theory of motivation proposed by William Glasser and it contends that behavior is never caused by a response to an outside stimulus. Instead, the control theory states that behavior is inspired by what a person wants most at any given time: survival, love, power, freedom, or any other basic human need. Discussion Responding to complaints that today’s students are “unmotivated,” Glasser attests that all living creatures “control” their behavior to maximize their need satisfaction. According to Glasser, if students are not motivated to do their schoolwork, it’s because they view schoolwork as irrelevant to their basic human needs. [...]
