Comments on: Homework Goes Vroom Too

By: mirandap

mirandap — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:46:22 +0000

Great great story! I should try that with my sister.

-M

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Smart one! Seriously, I’m going to use this one on my brother. He’s six and has recently left his train obsession for Star Wars and smacking us all on the butt with his light sabers. Now I know how to get him to do his homework!

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:18:34 +0000

I think little boys are inherently attracted to trains. It’s just something about them. …I comment on your posts wayyy too much.

By: Chance the Gardener

Chance the Gardener — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:50:28 +0000

On the down side, he never played with the new train set again.

By: obliterated

obliterated — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:57:30 +0000

I’m one of those out there who procrastinate doing things and end up doing them when I want to procrastinate doing other things. See the vicious cycle?
BUT SMART WAY TO GET YOU BROTHER TO DO HIS HOMEWORK. Bravo.

By: GREAT BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION ANECDOTE « The Red Pencil

GREAT BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION ANECDOTE « The Red Pencil — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:56:58 +0000

[...] I came across a nice story about behaviour modification in a six-year old. Homework goes Vroom, a must read, will tell you how a six-year-old was ‘gulled’ into loving spelling and [...]

By: grievingallthelittlestuff

grievingallthelittlestuff — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:50:42 +0000

Hilarious.

By: FragMagnet

FragMagnet — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:49:55 +0000

Oh wow. I should try that on myself sometime, maybe I can get something productive done for a change!

It’s almost unbelievable, but I love this little story because there’s a bit of that little kid in every one of us.

By: joely black

joely black — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:40:33 +0000

That’s just fantastic! Would this be a case of reframing: the moment you apply a new term to something, it becomes more interesting? I’ll recommend it for my brother when his daughter starts school. I did find, actually, when I was supposed to be doing my PhD thesis, my apartment was much cleaner, and I got far more writing done, that at any other time in my life.

By: themistress

themistress — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:56:32 +0000

dan, you are a genius. can you come and be my parenting guide?

By: Mouseclone

Mouseclone — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:38:56 +0000

Neat story. I wonder how I, myself, get to a point where I just do things. Sometimes I just say, “well someone has to do it” and other times i’m like “well if i’m not here tomorrow then it wasn’t worth doing today”.

It is crazy to really think about how to fix oneself, if you really don’t feel you are broken. Just because other people look at you like you should be doing something and your not doesn’t mean that you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing in your mind at the time. If that is the case as well, everything happens for a reason, and if that is a fact, then you are really no more out of place than you would be if you were doing what you thought that you should, or what other thought that you should be doing.

By: rivalslayer

rivalslayer — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:35:26 +0000

Great!!!

By: Maddy

Maddy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:57:45 +0000

Oh what fun reverse phsycology is.

By: Water Traveller

Water Traveller — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:28:02 +0000

Reverse psychology works on kids a lot, because they haven’t wisened up to it yet.

My apartment is only ever clean when I’ve got a lot of more important things to be doing. Letting the avoidance of one thing motivate you into another can work well sometimes. Unfortunately, if there’s something big looming over your head, it’s hard to convince yourself that you should be working on something else; you still can’t get to that one all-important thing.

By: fromthelaundryroom

fromthelaundryroom — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:14:47 +0000

Terrific Story and quite true. If only all things in life went Vroom!!

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:54:30 +0000

Interesting. Isn’t there a way to erase the concept of homework completely?

I mean, there’s a bunch of stuff that I want to do, and I’m not avoiding it because I feel compelled to, I’m avoiding it because I feel compelled to do other things, which I’m having a hard time doing.

I suppose that imagining the dialog that goes with what I’m doing is what’s holding me back. I’d be contented to do anything if I didn’t have to worry about anticipating an “attaboy” or a “you should have…”

I just think I want to value my work more than I value how I feel about it, or what it says about me. To Zach, it seems, the trains were more important than any rules someone might have been associated with them. And certainly he wasn’t much interested in what was going on around him. As long as he didn’t have to worry about if he wanted to do it or not, it seems like he was content to do it.

I think for us, as adults, it would be valuable to see ourselves as nothing without the task at hand, whether it’s spelling, programming, or studying. The process, ideally, should overtake us.

–

I am curious, how do you suggest people not feel compelled to do things that they genuinely want to do?

By: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:46:23 +0000

Oh God, thank you again… I need this shot of heroin. I need it, Dan!

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