Month: March 2020

Choice Theory – Basic Needs versus Desires

In my current work-at-home situation, I am investigating ideas and theories for future writing ventures.  Having three children at home as I read about classroom management and best instructional practices has prompted me to seek their opinions.

William Glasser’s choice theory, as stated in Quality School (1990), proposes that “all human beings are born with five basic needs built into their genetic structure: survival, love, power, fun, and freedom” (p. 43) (also described on the website).  Quality work depends on humans being able to choose situations, projects, pathways, etc. that satisfy these basic needs.  My college junior majoring in English and psychology would not accept these five tenets as needs.  The body will not die without them.

My husband disagreed.  He thinks love is a need, which perhaps highlights our human desire for connecting and belonging.  How many of us are increasing our use of social media during stay-at-home requests prompted by COVID-19 (love and belonging)?  How many of us venture out for supplies that we would not otherwise consider necessities (basic need for freedom)?  How many of us are choosing pathways that satisfy what Glasser describes as other basic needs (survival, power, fun)?

When I framed Glasser’s statement as “desires” rather than “needs,” my children ages 13, 18, and 21 became more accepting.  They still questioned how much and to what degree survival, love, power, fun, and freedom contribute to their motivation to do quality work, but that will be a different discussion on a later day when their freedom and fun are further limited with extended e-learning days.

My question is this: How are you motivated right now by survival, love, power, fun, and freedom?

My next question:  How might this motivation aspect of choice theory apply to education in these days of isolation and e-learning?

Let me know your thoughts.

Pandemic Productivity

What exactly is considered productive during a pandemic?  I think we need to seriously reconsider what that is supposed to look like when there is a house full people.  Even though I am perfectly capable of taking a book or a laptop into another room, I don’t. I find myself looking at statistics and watching the news.  Then I ask myself, “When have I ever watched or read more than headlines unless it has to do with an education policy?”  Now.  At this time is when.

Yesterday is a blur.  I know I read a little of Glasser’s Quality School, which my further research online has helped me discover Choice Theory’s basic needs.  Choice theory psychology states the following (copied from the website):

  • All we do is behave
  • Almost all behavior is chosen, and
  • We are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun.
  • We can only satisfy our needs by matching the pictures in our Quality World. These pictures motivate our behavior.
  • In practice, the most important need is love and belonging, as closeness and connectedness with the people we care about is a requisite for satisfying all of the needs.

I know very little about this theory, having been introduced recently to Glasser, but I find these points interesting.  The two points I bolded are my world right now.

What does survival look like?  Survival is having food, toilet paper, and other supplies.  But it is also being able to focus on work-related tasks such as writing, planning, grading, and meeting.  I am seriously considering upgrading my Pandora to the ultra supreme version, but for now I will try the Pandora Plus free trial.

What about freedom and fun?  We have board games and cards.  Teaching the 13-year old to play Euchre was fun.  But he’s not free.  None of us are.  My son played basketball in the neighbor’s driveway last night when my neighbor gave the all clear.  He used his own basketball.  My husband paces and is thinking about going into an empty facility to his closet office.  My college daughter wanted to make plans to see a friend today.  My senior daughter works at a veterinary hospital, which still needs people to show up.

My senior.  I know she had no plans to attend prom or other senior functions.  Those types of social events make her uncomfortable.  But what else is she missing just by not being in the hallways and classrooms at school?

Basic needs.  In the meantime, the world has toppled upside down.

My first online version of a face-to-face class is this afternoon.  It will be the first of several weeks until the term ends in May.  On the first day of class in January, students shared what they were looking forward to this semester (not necessarily in my class).  One student was excited about a study abroad trip to Italy.  A few students are preparing to graduate in May.  I cannot make that trip happen or ensure commencement will look or feel the same if it is planned for a later date.

What I can offer is belonging.  We are together in this struggle to complete classes, but it’s about all I have in me right now.

A Stay-at-Home Shelter Sunday

Yesterday was Sunday.  Even not being able to follow the same, weekly routine, it was, shall I say, a “better different.”  

I started the day watching live-streamed mass video recorded at my home church.  Admittedly, the entire day slipped by and at 8:45 p.m. I realized that no one else had watched with me.  The video is still available, so Monday might be church for the children.  

Some time later – I really don’t know how much later – I corralled a few others to do yoga with me.  We watched the video posted by my regular yoga instructor who I had not seen in person since the previous Tuesday.  Even though I can access a number of online yoga videos, it was nice to see her familiar face and hear her words of encouragement.  By the end of fifteen minutes, I was by myself. That’s okay. There are plenty more days.

At some point, I helped my daughter clip our dog’s nails, checked Facebook, talked with a colleague, and read some articles.

My son found a camera I had bought some years ago for a mission trip.  On that trip, we had been encouraged to keep our cell phones turned off, but as an adult leader, I wanted to take pictures.  Who knows what might still be on the SD card because we could not find the battery charger anywhere. That’s when I spent some time on Amazon ordering a replacement cord.  Not essential for anything but sanity.

Meanwhile, my husband kept searching for the camera battery charger cable. He opened a chest where I store incomplete baby books stuffed with mementos and boxes of photos from when I actually had film developed at a store.  We proceeded to look at old photos, smiling at memories from over 15 years ago.  I took pictures of pictures, sending them to Facebook friends and family members, some of whom I haven’t talked to in a very long time.  

The 13-year old spent the afternoon looking at slides under the microscope and taking pictures of his own.  Thankfully, he was looking at prepared slides of dog tongue and not creating new slides using our own dogs. 

I don’t think anyone actually ate leftovers, even though that had been my plan.  Cooking full meals for a few days had stocked the fridge with various containers of meats and veggies, but no one seemed hungry, or maybe they just snacked.  Anyway, cans of diced tomatoes are sitting on the counter today to remind me to fix chili. 

We taught the 13-year old to play the card game Euchre (yes, I had to look up the spelling).  He and dad won two games, but my daughter and I gave them competition. 

Ending the evening with a show and popcorn seemed more Sunday-ish and less “stay your butt home” order-ish.  It was definitely more peaceful than Saturday’s cabin fever-ish arguments. It’s Monday, and I can already see a whole lot more “ish” happening this week.  Perhaps first will be school-ish. It’s a really quiet morning for me when they sleep late, though, so there is not even a hope for schedule-ish right now.

One Situation, Multiple Experiences

Education at home

Each day this week, I have awakened with a surreal, unfamiliar feeling.  It has been disorienting to realize in the few moments after waking that life is a different normal.  We are in the very beginnings of an education plateau. No new, meaningful, strategic learning can take place without dedicated caregivers who can access all the tools being made available online.  I can help my own children access learning tools, but can everyone? Although I can teach literature analysis, help with reading comprehension, and discuss history, science, and multimedia, there was a reason I did not become a math major in college.  

Family

We had the talk with our 13-year-old son.  Quit playing with multiple kids outside. This is it.  He wasn’t happy, but he will comply. So when he wrestles with his sisters, chases the dogs around the house, or hits baseballs into the net in the basement, I will need to lock my lips tight, sit on my hands, and create a blank face.  And if I let the kids sleep until late morning in order to get a few quiet work hours, please do not judge.

At work

In higher education, we have been fortunate to already have several online delivery systems in place for optional use among professors who teach face-to-face courses.  Shifting immediately to online spaces is not easy but also not impossible, particularly with the level, timeliness, and constancy of support the tech teams are offering.  We are attempting to make online classes feel the same as face-to-face meetings with tools such as Blackboard Collaborate and Zoom, and I plan to test other interactive tools – Padlet and VoiceThread – for consideration in a true online version of this course that was already in the works.  Who knew that I would be testing them so soon?

But the struggles are still real.  One student has reached out to ask if the synchronous Blackboard Collaborate session during our scheduled class time was required.  She has taken more shifts at her grocery store job in order to make up for the hours lost as a teacher’s aid.  She assured me that she can figure out a way to attend class virtually at the scheduled time if necessary.  But I would rather figure out a way to engage her in the class without costing her essential income.

Finally

These are disorienting times.  The current situation is forcing our nation to redefine essential jobs.  This may be the biggest and most important lesson that our children will learn right now.