Attitude is the Primary 'Element'
in Elementary Education

by Don Berg, Founder
Attitutor Services

Attitude is the key to lifelong educational success.

Children's attitudes are shaped by the ways in which their efforts to meet their basic needs are facilitated or thwarted.

As an adult responsible for children you are obligated to nurture the children in your care before you move on to other kinds of enrichment, such as academics.

Nurturing necessarily means facilitating efforts to meet basic needs, which includes psychological needs.

Just like you have a basic nutritional need for Vitamin C, such that if you don't get it you get scurvy, you also have a psychological need for autonomy, for instance, such that if you do not get it you get depressed, anxious, or otherwise distressed.

If you teach Readin', 'Ritin', 'n' 'Ritmetic, but not Respect, Responsibility and Resourcefulness, then your students are at risk for motivational deficiencies.

The symptoms of motivational deficiencies also includes a lack of interest in learning, a sense that participating in a group (or class) is pointless, and cynicism and resignation in the face of injustice.

Consistently thwarted needs will shape a negative attitude while consistently met needs will shape a positive one.

Unfortunately, we have a K-12 school system that prevents many adults from meeting their moral obligations to the children in their care by forcing them to put other priorities ahead of nurturing.

It is time to put an end to the epidemic of control in K-12 schools that causes motivational deficiencies.

The systematic reinforcement of controlling behaviors inflicts motivational deficiencies on millions of teachers and students.

Many teachers, principals, and policy makers just do not realize that one of the basic psychological needs of human beings is autonomy.

This neglect is inadvertent on the part of most of the adults in schools due to a combination of unconscious mental models of what education is, features of the industrial design of the school system that influence both their behavior and their unconscious mental models, and deep cultural trends that have shaped the design of our industrial school system.

This web site is about how to enable schools to cultivate positive attitudes by:

1. drawing on a set of deep cultural trends to shape school design in the direction of universally nurturing children,
2. influencing management beliefs and behavior towards facilitating psychological need satisfaction,
3. encouraging every adult in our schools to meet their moral obligations to nurture children, and,
4. holding all the adults in schools accountable for using autonomy supportive behavioral management techniques.

Naturally this is a complex challenge and this site is just the beginning of addressing that challenge so this site covers a lot of different topics ranging across the disciplines of psychology and education.

This 10-minute video explains the deep cultural roots of why mainstream schools do school the way they do.

If we put attitude first throughout our education system then the long-term RESULTS will include:

• Passionate teachers teaching
• Enthusiastic students in
• Joyful schools, and
• Coincidently, perhaps, improved test scores, reduced stress, self-managed behavior, improved self-image, respect for legitimate authority, and increased academic excellence.

Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com is about helping you to provide the best possible educational leadership in any situation where you are in charge of kids.

"Who is this guy?" you ask.

In May 2012 I completed a research thesis for my degree at Reed College that suggests that the children in a home school resource center and a democratic school maintain their levels of intrinsic motivation in stark contrast to over three decades of findings that children in mainstream classroom settings have declining levels of intrinsic motivation.

I am a true teacherpreneur (entrepreneurial teacher) with over 15 years experience leading and caring for children in a variety of settings, including, home schooling other people’s kids for about five years using an adaptive curriculum focused on attitude, not academics.

I have also done nearly everything you can do with kids outside the formal classroom over the years; out-of-school program leadership, child care center teaching, camp counseling, and nannying.

Are you ready to tap into

• Passion
• Enthusiasm and
• Joy?

Then click a link!

Enjoy,

Don Berg

Attitude Problem In Education Free E-Book

The biggest mistake in education is the placement of academics above attitude. The Attitude Problem in Education presents a plan for putting attitude first instead.

Join the Schools of Conscience Consortium

Join the movement to enable schools to meet the basic psychological needs of their teachers and students: The Schools of Conscience Consortium.

Trans-Partisan School Reform: End the Neglect of Psychological Needs in Schools

School reform is too important to entrust to political parties, so let's organize a trans-partisan plan for creating great schools.

An Attitutor Private Teacher Can Cure Motivational Deficiencies

An Attitutor private teacher can help cure motivational deficiencies for learning.

Movie Reviews for Education

Don Berg hosts this series of movie reviews looking at how education ideas are presented in the movies.

Teach Kids Attitude 1st Blog

The Teach Kids Attitude 1st Blog keeps you up-to-date with all additions and changes to the Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com web site. Subscribe here.

Positive Attitude in Reality

Positive attitude is more than thinking good thoughts, it's the ability to access a beneficial state of mind regardless of your situation.

The Science of Attitude

The science of attitude was uniquely revealed when Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had a stroke and survived to tell the tale.

Leadership Is Not Management

Leadership is about aligning the context of an organization to meet the needs of those inside, those outside it, and other organizations. Management is just meeting the needs of the organization.

Attitutor Learning Theory

Learning is automatic, unconscious and impossibe to avoid. A learning theory based on learning, not just teaching.

Truthiness @ School

What does truthiness do at school? If truthiness is about knowing from the gut, schooliness is about knowing because they said it would be on the test.

Being a good teacher, what's it take?

Being a good teacher requires both passion and a place that supports you to be passionate.

Home School Curriculum: Start Anywhere, Learn Everything

This is a free home school curriculum approach that teaches the 3R's of Respect, Responsibility, and Resourcefulness.

Parenting Advice And Resources From Parents To Parents

Parenting advice and resources for parents from parents.

About Don Berg and Contact Form

Brief background information about Don Berg, creator of Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com and a form to contact him.

Site Map for Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com

Site Map for easy navigation and overview of Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com.

Intrinsic Motivation Research by Don Berg, Reed College

This intrinsic motivation research suggests that two alternative school settings do a better job of maintaining motivation in their students than traditional schools.