BE PART OF OUR GREATEST GATHERING EVER!

We are finally able to give you details about the William Glasser Association International Conference scheduled for 6th to 9th June 2012 in Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

1. This is the First International Conference organised by the new William Glasser Association International
2. The location is Dr. Glasser’s home town.
3. As Dr. Glasser is no longer able to travel beyond Los Angeles, this gives us a special way to honour him and his work.
4. We have made a special effort to keep the registration fee and the accommodation fees at the lowest levels ever.

Join us in celebrating Choice Theory around the world!

1. To allow us to finalise our deposits with LMU it is vital to the success of this conference that we get as many early bookings as possible.
2. We are asking you to pay your conference fee now.
3. The early registration fee is $300 (ending 31st Jan 2012).
4. The conference fee includes registration, all presentations and keynotes, breakfast, lunch and dinner Thursday to Saturday inclusive and including the Saturday banquet.
5. If we do not achieve our target deposits by the end of January we will need to reconsider our options.
6. If, for any reason, the conference is not held your fees will be returned to you.
7. Important: Do not pay for any flights until you receive a receipt from the conference committee and a clear go ahead from us to book flights.

For all information about this conference
including payment links
visit WGAI site

Happy Australia Day

I was interested to hear this morning that Geoffrey Rush had been made the Australian of the Year. A very worthy recipient for such an honour. A quick look at the media and a survey in one of Sydney's papers showed that not everyone agreed.

When he was interviewed he said he was humbled by the award.  He spoke about being in the company such amazing people - the other nominees- who were passionate about what they were doing and how he was changing his perception of what it is to be Australian.  As we know, more knowledge - from significant others can often change perception.

His hope as Australian of the Year is to bring about a shift in perception about social issues through the arts.  He particularly wanted to inspire young audiences.

I got to thinking how it would be to mingle with these people.  They all have a quality world and have different pictures and yet they have similarities.  As we believe that all motivation is from our quality world pictures and how we attempt to live our lives to get what we want, to meet one or more of our basic needs  of Survival, Belonging, Power, Freedom and Fun.

Geoffrey Rush said that his chief drive was 'a professional calling'.  Perhaps this could describe what other nominees thought about what they do.  Perhaps the sense of a professional calling is about meeting all of the needs by what we do.  Perhaps it is about the values we hold as people who can make a difference for our fellow human beings.

Making the difference

A young mum who, with her husband had taken over the family farm, put in a nutshell the difference between schools that adapt the philosophy of internal motivation versus external motivation.    

She had grown up on the farm and was used to the daily tasks of farming. 

She said “It is so different now, being a farmer instead of a teenager on the farm.  When I was growing up I just did what dad told me to do.  Now I have the responsibility of the decisions and I love it.”

This is the essence of the Glasser Quality School classroom.  In a school where external motivation is used, the students do (sometimes) what the teacher tells them to do.  In a school based on internal motivation the students take responsibility for their choices and do the work because it adds quality to their lives. 

As teachers, if we make all the decisions and always tell students what to do, they do not develop the sense of ownership and joy in learning that students attending a Glasser Quality School do.

In the daily tasks on a large farm, the owners would constantly be self-evaluating; the best way to achieve the desired results; the outcomes of their work; the amount that they have achieved and the work still to be done.  

These minute-by-minute decisions make the difference between failing and succeeding both on the farm and in the classroom.