Capitalist Magazine June 18, 2009) How do we motivate our children to learn? According to educator Lisa VanDamme in Motivation and Education, “a person is motivated when he has the drive or desire that incites action. It must incite the drive to acquire knowledge-and not just any knowledge, but that knowledge necessary for life as an adult human being.”

By life as an adult being she means life as an employee. “A motivated employee is one who is inspired to action consistent with the central goal of his job.”

She found that Waldorf School children were motivated because they participate in activities believed to be natural to their stage of development, such as finger-knitting, storytelling, and movement games. But she asks,

“These children are, in a sense ‘motivated,’ but motivated to do what?”

In other words, will they be motivated to carry out the purposes of others rather than their own purposes as adults? This business theory of education shows her lack of knowledge of the human being and motivation.

I suggest she study The Philosophy of Freedom. Then she will learn that the human being will only be truly motivated if they pursue their own ideals and purposes. They will want to pursue employment that meets their ideals, rather than the reverse.

POF 13-11 "Moral ideals spring from the moral imagination of the human being. Their realization depends on his desire for them being intense enough to overcome pain and misery. They are his intuitions, the driving forces which his spirit harnesses; he wants them, because their realization is his highest pleasure."