Clandestine Reading

I have a confession to make: I am one of those people who peers over to read the books that the people next to me on the bus are reading.
I always try to be very discreet, but sometimes I know I've been found out when the owner of the book either angles it pointedly away from me to prevent my intrusion, or else spreads it open a little wider and turns it a little bit, to enable me to share the wealth of text even better. I know this habit might be terribly annoying or even creepy to some people, but, if I had a book and had the opportunity to share what I was enjoying with them, I'd be glad to do it!

You really can learn a lot of great things by sampling conveniently-located prose in this way, too. Sometimes, I catch segments of news articles on the back of people's newspapers, and am better equipped to discuss that particular current event or issue. Sometimes, it's a novel being read next to me, and I can grab a glimpse of a genre or writing style that I would never have otherwise been exposed to. Still other times, if I'm really lucky, it's a non-fiction book, and I can soak up new perspectives or knowledge on a topic I know comparatively little about.

Recently, I found myself sitting next to a woman who was reading from a collection of essays on education. As someone who is counting on teaching at some point in the future, I was especially eager to take in what I could.
This is also the point in this blog post at which I might lose a lot of you who don't particularly care about educational issues.
The particular essay I read most of was discussing the value of intrinsic motivation, as opposed to extrinsic motivation. The author explained a study that was conducted (I won't go into detail on it, because I'm sure I'd get a couple of facts wrong) that clearly showed that students who are invited, by a facilitating teacher, to learn because of their own natural curiousity, learn far more and far better than those who are told to learn the same material well for examination purposes. The point the author was trying to make is that our current emphasis and reliance on the testing system in schools is turning out rote learners, whose innate hunger for knowledge is killed.
I agreed with nearly everything the essay presented. In almost every learning situation, intrinsic motivation is of far more value than extrinsic motivation. But in my mind, that does not imply that we should scrap the test-based system we're accustomed to. Imagine for a minute that we did just that. Without the added motivation of grades and tests, one group of students - those who were actually motivated to learn on their own, and had interest in the subject - would likely learn more, and learn better. But the result on the other group of students - those with no motivation to learn, and no interest in the subject - would be disastrous; they'd have no reason to learn.
I don't have an answer. But I do feel that some fresh thinking would be beneficial for the educational system. I hope someone with more knowledge than I have of psychology and teaching methods can find some middle ground, and develop a great new system on it.

Next time you're reading on public transit, no matter what book it is, keep it open a little wider. You never know who might be reading, fascinated, over your arm!