Verbal Judo, the Martial Art of the Mind and Mouth, Chapter 3 Review

bykeimor

225 followers

4 years ago

Good day WA Friends,

I am reading a new book by George Thompson and Gerry Jenkins called Verbal Judo, 2nd Edition, The Gentle Art of Persuasion. Here is my chapter 2 review.

Chapter 3 Baptism of Fire

Introduction

The chapter starts out with a brief exploration of who the author is and where he came from. It is a fascinating story of growing up and how he hated school and how his life was turned around by a guidance counselor who said something to him as a challenge. He became a straight-A student after and went to college at Colgate. He majored in English.

When he graduated he wanted to teach and got his first teaching job at Princeton High School as an English teacher. The previous teacher was beaten up so he was in for a big task.

The first task he gives the class is a book to read on men and war called God Is My Co-Pilot.

The students rejected his idea of reading this book and ceremoniously ripped up the book. So, he had a problem with how to motivate his students.

What is Motivation? Why is it important?

The word "motivation" is derived from the Latin word "movere", which means to move. Motivation is the process of getting someone to do something or the act of motivating someone. It can be described as a mental condition that activates and energizes a person to do something.Motivation is important because it affects how people think, feel and behave. Motivating students will help them learn more effectively, improve their grades and make them feel better about themselves.

The Causes of Low Motivation in Students

It is important to understand the causes of low motivation in students. If you can identify the cause, it will be easier to help your students overcome it.There are many reasons for low motivation in kids. Some of them are:

• Lack of interest
• Low self-esteem
• Lack of confidence
• Too much pressure from parents and teachers

How to Identify The Right Motivational Strategy For Students

Motivation is a key factor in the success of a student. Motivation can be defined as “a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way”. There are many ways to motivate students, but it is important to find the right motivation for each individual student which he has demonstrated in this chapter.

Intrinsic motivators are internal and come from within the individual. They are related to students’ intrinsic interest in a subject, which is why they are motivated to learn more about it. Extrinsic motivators, on the other hand, come from outside of the individual and may be related to rewards or punishments.

One way to motivate as in this chapter is to find something that interests the student. In this chapter, the author met the students to where they were at. He found what made them tick and had them teach about what they loved. And then challenged them to go further in their study of that topic. He got the class to read, write, use the library for research, and public speaking. It was a different way to meet the objectives of the class but he met them in a different way. He was able to raise their expectations of themselves.

Conclusion

"I learned that while there may be hundreds of ways to get something done - for instance motivating a student-there was but one underlying principle: raise his or her expectations." He applied hundreds of ways but one principle approach to Verbal Judo which we are about to learn in later chapters.

We can apply this lesson to our own lives, how would you? Especially if you have kids. We have found what makes each of our kids tick and we nurture that interest to teach them about other things in the process. That is how we have gotten them to read ourselves.

What about you? Do you have clients that you need to motivate?

Have a great day!

Cheers,

Keith