Richard Lavoie - The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child

I EXTEND MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION to the extraordinary team at Simon & Schuster for their ongoing faith in this project.

Trish Todd has been unwavering in her support and has provided me with a seemingly limitless supply of encouragement, inspiration, and wisdom. She approached this project with the mind of an editor and the heart of a moman unbeatable combination.

Kimberly Brissenden, Jessica Napp, Jamie McDonald, and Kelly Bowen have been of invaluable assistance over the past two years. Walking a rookie author through the maze of media interviews and book signings is no easy trick. Kimberly, Jessica, Jamie, and Kelly accomplished this task masterfully.

My literary agent, Liza Dawson, envisioned me as an author long before I did. Her faith, persistence, encouragement, persistence, loyalty, persistence, diligence, and persistence made all the difference.

When I was a young professional, I had very strong feelings and beliefs about the education that struggling children should receive. I had passion, fervor, spirit, commitment, and a compelling message. In fact, I had everything that a successful speaker needsexcept an audience.

One man changed all that. Bill Halloran had faith in me and my message and added me to his national Teacher Revival Tour in the early 1980s. He helped me to hone my speaking skills and was a kind and gentle mentor. His confidence and belief in me made all the difference. My wish for every young educational professional is that a Bill Halloran enters your life.

The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning On the Tuned-Out Child was not the product of extensive research, surveys, computer searches, or interviews. Its content is based upon my thirty years of experience teaching, coaching, and observing children who struggle in school. During my career I have worked with or observed countless teachers and coaches who have been extraordinarily effective at motivating children. I have learned from each of them. I am in their debt.

On a recent long plane trip, I made a list of the names and character traits of the twenty-five best teachers whom I have seen over the past thirty years. One of the most common traits listed was humility. Most truly great teachers simply dont know how great they are and constantly strive to improve.

So, if you have worked with me in the past and you think that your name is on the listit probably isnt. And if you think that you didnt make the listyou probably did. Congratulations.

RDL

I HAVE BEEN INFORMED AND INSPIRED by innumerable colleagues and students over the past thirty years. There are two people who have been greatly on my mind as Ive written this book. One is a teacher. The other is a student.

Our daughter, Meghan, confronted significant struggles with language in her elementary school career. Spelling and reading were a particular challenge for her and she had great difficulty breaking the code. Schoolwork was a daily struggle, but her ebullient personality and her irresistible charm carried her through the first three years of school. She had friends who embraced her, a family that adored her, and a personality that earned her admirers wherever she went. She was a winner. We knew itand so did she.

Her world began to unravel when she reached fourth grade. She had an overly stern, inflexible teacher who did not find Meggs shenanigans particularly endearing. She was a stickler for spelling accuracy and was renowned for her fifty-word Friday spelling tests. Megg began to fail. She failed often and publicly. The sparkle began to leave her eyes. Monday morning tummy-aches became commonplace. She had trouble sleeping. She lost confidence. She became sad and introverted and no longer carried tales of school to the dinner table to entertain her parents and her adoring brothers.

Kids go to school for a living. Its their jobtheir workplace. And she was failing daily at her job.

We tried to intervene, but with minimal success. The teacher had her policies and procedures and saw no compelling reason to modify these to meet our daughters needs. She was intransigent, and Megg went through each school day with the fear of impending failure and the wrenching knowledge that the adult in her classroom simply did not like her. Meggs attempts to please her teacher were fruitless. Praise or encouragement was simply not part of the teachers repertoire.

We tried to ramp up the praise and reinforcement that we provided Megg at home in order to offset her daily rejection and failure at school, but we were fighting a losing battle. Our joyful little girl was becoming sad. My wife, Janet, and I had five education degrees between us and were professional teachers, but our daily doses of success, praise, and encouragement were offset by the rejecting and critical comments that Megg received at school every day.

One Friday, Megg disembarked the school bus and slowly opened the door to the kitchen. She had invested several hours in studying for that days fifty-word spelling test, and her teacher had returned the test to the students that same day. Meggs efforts had paid off. Shed gotten forty-nine words correct!

But the only written comment on the paper, in bright red ink, read, one wrongwrite misspelled word ten times.