d equally well as peers on third-grade math and reading tests. Kids who get the official nod as “gifted” often have access to greater opportunities—so Islas thinks it’s crucial that educators keep working to get it right.
“You can enjoy what you do in life”
But the Gottfrieds’ research on motivation is important for reasons that go beyond gifted education. The Gottfrieds believe schools and parents can help all kids find their passion for learning. “Education is so skills oriented, so competency oriented, they just seem to forget about motivation,” Allen complains. Adele says one of the most important thing parents can do for their kids is stimulate their curiosity and give them the chance to become good at something they enjoy – whether they fall into a gifted category or not. “Everybody could potentially be motivationally gifted,” she says, given the right encouragement.
Yet that message may have a hard time resonating in the current educational climate, with its relentless push to rack up achievements earlier and faster.
“Focusing on intrinsic motivation doesn’t happen because it’s a complete contrast to what society is telling kids,” says educator Sheri Werner, the principal of a public charter middle school in west Los Angeles. Werner believes educators need to connect with kids by teaching them in a way that feels relevant to their lives. But her priorities sometimes put her on a collision course with parents, particularly as kids move into higher grades.
“There’s a lot of fear that if we let kids learn what they want to learn, they won’t get into college,” Werner says. She’s seen parental anxiety escalate over the years as competition mounts in universities and the job market. But she believes schools do children no favors when they dissuade them from exploring the subjects that naturally interest them, force-feeding them AP calculus instead. “What message are we giving kids? You don’t have to suffer through your job to get to the weekend. You can enjoy what you do in life.“
The Gottfrieds are living embodiments of this ethos. They are still vibrantly engaged in their research, eager to debate the parameters of their latest findings. As the Fullerton study babies approach middle age, the metrics have moved from tabulating degrees and grade point averages to other, more subjective definitions of achievement, like life satisfaction and relationships. Recently, Allen helped design a survey to measure personal success.
“The most informative item in the scale is very simply accomplishing the goals you set out,” he says. “It goes beyond education, it goes beyond money, it’s your own personal success.” They’ve also spent time looking at leadership, which, not surprisingly, dovetails with their intrinsic motivation research. Fullerton study kids who showed higher levels of intrinsic motivation at the age of nine have turned out to be more motivated to lead in their 20s—maybe because they genuinely enjoy the challenge.
But a rare note of regret creeps in when the Gottfrieds talk getting their work out to a popular audience. They are academics, not journalists. “We don’t know how to write for the public,” Allen admits, recalling times they left non-experts baffled by detailed descriptions of latent variable analysis and structural equations—tools of the trade for research psychologists. “They told us we lost the audience,” Adele agreed. They have talked with colleagues at academic conferences about ways to reach more practitioners and parents. But perhaps the rest of us need to meet them halfway. After all, they’ve devoted their entire adult lives to the research. Now, it’s up to everyone else to listen.