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Sarah Kmon's avatar

Hi Laura,

I am thrilled to come across your substack and am looking forward to reading it in the coming days.

A question up front: do you have resources you send to people about intrinsic motivation? I was looking for some good ones recently and only came up with Alfie Kohn. If you have some you can share, I'd be grateful to receive them.

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Regina Sweeney's avatar

Hi @Sarah Kmon @sarahkmongrowinghearths, I'm not sure if you'll see this reply. (I'm still learning how Substack works . . .) Over 100 years ago, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was advocating for the development of self-discipline in children via intrinsic motivation. I write about this at my Substack: Music, Montessori, and Mimosas.

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Laura Wilde, PhD.'s avatar

Yes, Regina. Thanks for thinking about Montessori. It’s the closest model of schooling for self-directed learning which is typically very high in intrinsic motivation. I will check out your stack!

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Regina Sweeney's avatar

Yes, Laura, Montessori has been amazing and a true blessing for our family. My husband and I were founders of a Catholic Montessori school 20 years ago. After we moved out of the area, I took everything we learned from that experience and applied it to my homeschooling. I shudder to think what our family life could have looked like if we hadn't changed our child raising worldview.

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Laura Wilde, PhD.'s avatar

Beautiful! We're lucky to have access to alternative models of schooling and have the freedom to embrace them.

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Laura Wilde, PhD.'s avatar

Hi Sarah,

Welcome! I have lots of resources on intrinsic motivation...lol! What kind of read are you looking for? Dan Pink's book, Drive is very accessible. Also, Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is classic. We don't see a lot of education books centered around intrinsic motivation because school's don't operate around that principle. I've posted a few posts about intrinsic motivation: A crisis of meaning, Drifting to Driven, Let Kid's Decide, and even the one on What plants teach us about community. I'm happy to help or discuss!

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Lisa's avatar

Amazing! Well done, friend :)

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Marcia Koford's avatar

Laura, aka, Mrs. Noodle!

Your Substack piece on ‘Becoming The Noodle’, is not only delightful, but merits serious consideration. Thank you for stretching my mind and expanding my personal passion for being in a state of Flow, to recognizing it’s broader potential ~ not just within our individual lives, but as an essential element of a thriving society. We DO want our kids, in their early formative stages, to develop a ready familiarity with a state of Flow. Not only can accessing a state of flow enhance their own peaceful state of mind, but having that capacity at hand, opens doorways for their later creative expressions that could benefit all of society. As a former educator who has taught from preschool to post graduate students and professionals, I know only too well how today’s educational system, stifles a child’s potential for developing the “deeply grooved pathways” needed in order to become whole and self fulfilled adults. Your insights so beautifully expressed here, reveal depths of wisdom we all need to hear. I look forward to learning more from you on future Substack postings.

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Laura Wilde, PhD.'s avatar

Thank you so much for your inspired and articulate comments, Marcia!

I believe the world would dramatically and positively change if we all knew how to find flow and frequently accessed it.

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Marcia Koford's avatar

Amen!

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