Can Only Fear Lead to Learning?

I agree with Bruno Bettelheim, I think that fear is a very important part of learning. I don t think Children or students will learn unless they have a feeling of fear inside them. Saying that studying and learning should be fun doesn t cut it. Even if something is fun when you do it, you will get bored after a while. Bettelheim argues that the children who live by the pleasure principle can learn only what they enjoy learning; hence, they acquire only bits and pieces of knowledge. His way of thinking so true, I can relate to him as a student. If I didn t have the fear of displeasuring my parents and the fear of failing and end up as a bum on the street, I wouldn t have come to college. And I wouldn t have pursued education, and even if I did attend college I wouldn t have cared much because I would see it as a fun, and pleasure abiding thing and I wouldn t put much effort into learning and studying. Where, than, can one find the motivation to keep studying even when it isn t fun?

Bettelheim argues that the answer is fear, fear of hell, fear of parental displeasure, fear of not making it, fear or something. He makes a clear point when he also states that it takes fear to motivate children instead of fun. You should limit fun and give the child hope that the postponement of fun has good results later on. Bettelheim points out that the child must experience repeatedly that the postponement of pleasure has good results later on. He believes that middle-class children are more likely to experience such parental modeling than children in impoverished homes.

Another aspect of fear is at least the fear of losing parental love and respect (or later, by proxy, the teacher s) and eventually, the fear of losing self-respect. When I was growing up I always had fear in the back of my head that I wouldn t make it through. I always feared my parents therefore I always tried to do well. I always had fear of losing parental love and respect. I also had fear of losing self-respect. Fear is what got me through High School and fear is also helping me get through college. I think every student and child should have fear in his or her lives for them to excel and for them to be motivated to learn and get educated.