<p>Garland’s “differently motivated” says it for me when I think about my children. School has always been easy for S, who is surely differently motivated; he just did enough in K-12 to keep us off his back, graduating with a 3.5 UW but with the aid of strong test scores and a geographic diversity advantage getting accepted at a Top 20 University. There he’s put in only as much effort as it takes to get by in required classes but is maintaining above a 3.5 in his major, which he wouldn’t attribute to working harder but, because he likes the material, he probably is. Although his work history so far has consisted of minimum-wage jobs which he got only when pushed, he actually has been offered an amazing internship because he spent a lot of time researching possibilities and his coursework fits closely with the position’s needs. Younger D on the other hand actually qualified for Title 1 services early in elementary school as she struggled to learn to read but, perhaps as a result, was driven throughout K-12 to achieve academically and did–just graduating with a 3.93 UW in an AP and Honors curriculum. She now says, “Just to warn you . . . I’m not going to stress out too much about my grades in college.” </p>
<p>Largely the differences in what motivates them seem innate, although environment probably plays into it as well; D saw us spending a lot of time trying to get S to perform up to his capability academically and knew we valued it even though we never emphasized academics as much with her when it looked like they might be a struggle.</p>