Whether you are a parent or a grandparent, you are also a teacher. You influence and teach the children in your life, regardless of your vocational title. So the children you influence are also, in many ways, your students.

And every student needs to be motivated to learn. We cultivate that motivation with encouragement.

This is the sixth in a series of posts on The Seven Laws of the Teacher by Howard Hendricks. Previous posts include:

• The Law of the Teacher: “If you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow.”
• The Law of Education: “The way people learn determines how you teach.”
• The Law of Activity: “Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement.”
• The Law of Communication: “To truly impart information requires the building of bridges.”
• The Law of the Heart: “Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.”

Our sixth law in The Seven Laws of the Teacher is the Law of Encouragement:
“Teaching tends to be most effective when the learner is properly motivated.”

To encourage our learners, the type of motivation is important, too. External motivations may be helpful, but they can be damaging, too. Hendricks refers to these as lollipop rewards, and we’ve all used them at one time or another. You know the kind: “If you clean your room, I’ll give you a lollipop.” But this can leave a disconnect between knowledge and transformation.

Another kind of motivation is guilt. Guilt motivates us to learn because “that’s what good Christians are supposed to do.” But like lollipop rewards, external motivation will most likely fail to lead to transformation.

The best type of motivation is one where the learner recognizes his need. Because then the motivation is internal. We, as parents, grandparents, and teachers, can’t create an internal motivation. But we can try to help children recognize their own need so they see the value in learning. And ironically, often that recognition arises out of their failures.

With that recognition, the learner is ready to receive our teaching.

Most of us think equate teaching with telling. But telling is just the first phase of teaching. To encourage our students, where possible, teaching should include:

• telling: the communication of information
• showing: the demonstration of that information
• doing: providing the learner with the opportunity to practice and apply that information

Good teachers are good encouragers, which means they are also good motivators. And being a good encourager is everyone’s job!