Do kids want to study?

My experiences @ AID Prayas(An NGO for tutoring underprivileged kids) :

1. Do kids want to study?


I guess yes. To me it's not simply the reward/punishment logic, at times
they genuinely enjoy two numbers being added. Exercising the faculty
of brain is indeed a pleasure for them. I don't think they really know that
it can get a job for them, so it's not a necessity for sure. Nor am I distributing
sweets to the better performing ones.

2. Boys vs. Girls

With boy students I can afford to be rude, casual and cursory. In fact if
I treat them too well, they offer me a suspecting glance. With girls, if I don't
smile often enough, they tend to withdraw themselves into a shell. A lot
of persuasion goes into making them learn new things.

Boys seem to pick up math skills faster for two reasons that I can think of:

(i) The kind of games they play require some sort of counting, cricket, kanche,
or any other game that I can think of, while girls are dressing up their dolls.


(ii) Some of them work in the shops in the daytime(it's a night class), so even there
they have to count stuff, at least the money that they get.