You often can’t learn without motivation. That motivation does not need to painful, and the problem I have with the idea that it does is that people often think the pain is the point.

People aren’t stupid because they’re comfortable, they’re stupid because many are actively discouraged from exploring new ideas. Their curiosity is crushed so that the politicians and people writing the curriculums don’t need to think too hard. I’m all for the notion that solving something a particular way has merit in a learning environment but the way we handle those lessons is so embarrassing.

It’s not “yes that’s also a good way to do it, but I would like to see it done this way for this exercise” it’s simply “you’re wrong”. Kids can see that they got the right answer and don’t understand why the authority figure is clearly lying to them so they simply lose respect for them, along with the motivation to try.