ABSTRACT

Just as we should work freely and for intrinsic rewards, so too should we learn for intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motives. If we learn or work for extrinsic reasons, we are allowing ourselves to be controlled by others—those others who give us grades or money for our work or learning. And when we learn for extrinsic reasons, there is an insidious devaluing of learning, since learning becomes a means to a distant end seen as the real purpose of learning. The means–end nature of schooling makes teaching and learning insincere. Only learning accorded intrinsic value can overcome the contemporary tragedy of learning about truth for reasons that are fundamentally insincere and false. The chapter concludes with ideas for transforming schools, so that learning can be truly social, interactive, and intrinsically pleasurable. It describes how inquiry can be integrated with “work,” thus erasing the means–end nature of schooling and the consequent relegation of learning to children only. It proposes how to make learning genuinely communal and interactive. While progressive educators have often advocated communal values, their reforms fail when the nature of the larger society in which schools are situated is competitive and individualistic. Thus, school reform must happen in tandem with societal transformation, as will be the case in Utopia.