ABSTRACT
Efforts to arouse students are hardly doomed; thousands of teachers regularly intellectually awaken the academically lethargic. Enlisting public schools to light intellectual fires is an uphill battle, and impediments deserve recognition. The place to begin is to acknowledge that a “one size fits all” nostrum is probably doomed. The aversion to corporal punishment was illustrated in a 2008 study conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. As the Human Rights Watch glibly put it, “Likewise, parents and even children want orderly, safe school environments in which students can learn. In the US, by contrast, controlling after-school activities has been an uphill battle. The awaiting obstacles to upping motivation are severe. Students must be cajoled, enticed, and rewarded for progress no matter how slight. Professional educators may find the criteria exasperating. Historically, the external approach had dominated and still remains popular in many traditional schools and in education-obsessed nations like Japan and Korea.
