How to transmit the sense of effort to your youngsters? | EUROtoday

“QUand I exchange with my students, I note a disintegration of the sense of effort and the value that is attributed to it. In the sense that students have a growing difficulty getting out of their comfort zone and are increasingly reluctant to intellectual questioning aimed at expanding their reflection. »»

This commentary, Teddy Mayoko, lecturer in academic sciences on the University of Cergy Paris and writer of the ebook The style for effort. This important factor with which we should reconnect(ed. L’Harmattan), says to share it with a lot of his colleagues, each at college and within the first or second diploma.

In a survey* carried out in 2022 with IFOP, the Jean Jaurès Foundation had already identified a devaluation of this worth amongst younger individuals, significantly for the reason that COVVI-19 disaster … “Confainment has accelerated the degradation of our ability to produce efforts, with the progressive advent of a new paradigm which is that of profitability, confirms Teddy Mayo. The idea is that the efforts made should be immediately profitable. Now society is an accomplice of this trend; With the uberization of services (delivery apps, streaming platforms, etc.), everything is done to make life easier for consumer. In other words, the resources of our environment contribute to orient us towards the slightest effort. »»

The pleasure linked to effort contributes more to our happiness

A problem all the more crucial for young people in full construction as this ability to effort is one of the factors of personal development … “In neuroscience, we determine two main sources of reward, notes the psychiatrist David Gourion, writer of the ebook The secret of joyful teenagers (ed. Odile Jacob). The first is linked to so-called “hedonic” pleasures, that’s to say the seek for simple and fast satisfaction. The second, referred to as “eudémonic” (from Greek eudaimoniawhich means “bliss”) outcomes from a sense of non-public realization; We managed to surpass ourselves, we carried out a troublesome job, we gave which means to our motion, and so forth.

Scientific research reveal that this delayed pleasure, linked to work and energy, is a extra intense and extra lasting supply of reward than fast pleasure, and contributes extra to our happiness. Not to say that the power to supply an effort additionally determines our capability for resistance and resilience…. “Sociology studies confirm that individuals with predispositions to effort are better armed to meet the difficulties of life,” provides Teddy Mayo.

Parents, join the trouble to the notion of curiosity!

There would subsequently be an urgency, in line with the tutorial, to “rehabilitate the effort”, to “give it back its flavor”, by modifying sure academic postures, beginning with the gaze that one collectively seems at this notion … “There is a societal tendency to systematically oppose effort and pleasure, he underlines. So much so that we operate a form of mental partitioning between on the one hand the work which requires rigor, serious, self -denial and on the other, pleasure, exclusively reserved for the field of game and distraction. »»

A regrettable dichotomy, carrying a caricatured vision … “An recommendation to offer to oldsters is to hyperlink the trouble very early to the notion of curiosity and discovery, helps David Gourion. Transmitting the concept, for instance, that there’s a pleasure in making arithmetic, doing pc coding, enjoying chess or that literature is a good playground, opening appreciable fields to develop its understanding of the world. Just as, later, in adolescence, there’s a pleasure to change into conscious of his capacities (creative, mental, bodily, cognitive, and so forth.) and to increase them through work and coaching. »»

Faced with an adolescent, it’s higher to encourage with rewards fairly than blame

The truth stays that in entrance of an adolescent who has bother leaving the sofa or successful from his console, the spirits are inclined to heat up … “Often relationships are tending to adolescence, in particular because we are a very stressful country in terms of academic results, with parents who tend to use blame or shouting as a motivation strategy, regrets Dr. David Gourion. In reality, stress is counterproductive; He possibly gives short -term results but he above all risks generating a hyperanxious teen or who will try to film to make believe that he is working … “.

Conversely, if the efforts requested are underpinned by encouragement and constructive relations with these round them (and even tangible rewards) there may be extra probability that they register in the long run. “There is no circuit of will in our brain, but there are neurons of motivation,” continues the psychiatrist. Note that tangible rewards should not essentially pocket cash or display screen time. It generally is a “social” award, the time spent along with his household or buddies, the invention of a brand new sports activities or leisure exercise, for instance. »»

The unsuspected virtues of failure and tedium

It continues to be obligatory, after all, to confess (and overcome) the difficulties and the comparatively painful moments that any effort supposes … “Often, and because we have a very negative vision, the failures that we undergo weaken our motivation to act, and therefore our propensity to provide efforts, notes Teddy Mayo. However, children must be reminded that failure is constitutive of learning, which is a slow, discontinuous process, marked by phases of stagnation and regression, and that in that, failure is a positive concept. »»

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In the identical approach as failure, furthermore, boredom would even have unsuspected virtues because it presents fertile land to invent and create. “We sometimes tend to overprotect children, because we underestimate what they are capable of,” notes the professional. However, depriving them of those experiences – failure, boredom, frustration – is to deprive them of decisive alternatives to develop, construct, flourish. »Without at all times saving …

*Ifop for the Jean Jaurès Foundation “The French, effort and fatigue”, September 2022