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By the end of the year, they realize the reason that they know all that they know is because they had to COMPETE, and that, if they let up, someone else will move ahead of them.

That’s possibly the best lesson they can learn, anyway.
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In every adult work and social environment in which I have been involved pleasant cooperation, reliability, dependability, and especially **competency** were the qualities that were valued. While there may have been competition with outside business competitors, competition within the group was NOT helpful in any manner.

While I agree with you that your methods are likely effective in helping children learn in the typical classroom environment, but, fundamentally, is it natural or normal for children to be segregated from the larger society, in prison-like buildings, and confined for large parts of the day to socialization with children all of the same age?

Would an adult willingly place himself in a situation where he would be “humiliated” and subjected to “scorn”? If an adult would find it very difficult to cope with this type of social abuse, why on earth would we think it is good for children? Perhaps it is the environment itself that is responsible for the lack of motivation.

Much of the “socialization” learned in our prison-like government government schools is prison-gang survival and coping strategies. These dysfunctional habits must be **unlearned** and replaced with healthy interpersonal skills if success is to be achieved in the workplace, family, and larger society. Thankfully, humans are highly adaptable. Most make the transition. Sadly, some do not.

If our Founding Fathers were to walk through a typical government school they would be horrified at how we treat children. When they spoke of education they likely had their own educations in mind. That would include:

**homeschool with tutoring as needed from relatives, friends, and some paid tutors.
** very small dame schools in the homes of neighbors
** very small one room schools organized by parents that included children of all ages
** Apprenticeships for older children, and home-based academies to prepare the brightest ( who could afford it) for entrance into college as **young** teens.

“In every adult work and social environment in which I have been involved pleasant cooperation, reliability, dependability, and especially **competency** were the qualities that were valued. While there may have been competition with outside business competitors, competition within the group was NOT helpful in any manner.”

And everyone is promoted at the same time, and everyone makes the same salary, right? If you don’t think people compete within a company for salaries, positions, etc, you’re nuts.

“Would an adult willingly place himself in a situation where he would be “humiliated” and subjected to “scorn”? If an adult would find it very difficult to cope with this type of social abuse, why on earth would we think it is good for children? Perhaps it is the environment itself that is responsible for the lack of motivation.”

Nobody’s making them be lazy or forcing them not to study. It’s called a “consequence”. If people come to recognize, FROM YOUR ACTIONS, that you choose not to work, then so be it. It’s going to be that way for the rest of your life! The good part about it is, the kids completely forget about socioeconomic class, cliques, etc., and select ONLY based on the fact that someone might be a hard worker. In other words, they see the VALUE in a person where they otherwise might not. Conversely, sometimes best friends are passed over if they’ve shown lazy tendencies. But, it’s all up to the kid to work hard and create that value in himself, as it will be for the rest of their lives! That’s the way it SHOULD be! And as for blaming the environment, that’s just one of a long list of things that people use so they don’t have to hold the kids responsible. “It’s not the kid’s fault, its the environment”. If that were true, none of them would succeed.