This is not 'Nam. There are rules.

A quote from The Big Lebowski, a film watched endlessly by college students, has John Goodman holding a pistol to a fellow bowlers head for stepping over the line and not marking the score zero. He tells him "This is not 'Nam. It's bowling. There are rules."

This is often how school feels. People are yelling about how it should be quiet and how you should act while brandishing a thick wooded board built for 'whacking'. However, at the SKC we are trying to reconstruct the concept of rules. Rules are not obstacles to be avoided or in place so we can figure out how to break them. They are empowering ideas, which will propel us to achievement. I found the gaff in the my lesson plans last week when we had a week long concluding exercise and many of the students responded, "When we break a rule we move our clip down". Arrrggggh. No! When you break a rule you are losing learning time and impeding your chances for success or in the case of the Big Lebowski, the success of others. This underlying concept that the rules will bring you to a higher plateau of self worth must be delivered to the children. Thankfully we are not that far off. On Monday we will be talking about BIG GOALS and how the rules will be helping to propel us towards these goals. The kids will buy it. I am almost positive that building intrinsic motivation will happen.