No Desire to learn...

We were talking in class about how Hume said "Desire, not reason, governs human behavior." It got me to thinking about how we learn here in America and the educational system our government puts us through. It is my belief that education should be about self enlightenment and about learning things we desire to learn. But so often our schools put us through classes in our formal education that are of no interest to different individuals. It seems our schools could care less about self enlightenment, rather they care that we pass the standardized tests the states say we should. Education is now a process of "school to work." No one desires to learn about things that do not interest them. Hume also said there is no disinterested learning. If this is the case are students really absorbing the knowledge teachers are throwing on them, or are they just doing what they must to fit into a society that tells them this is how it has to be? I believe the latter to be true. When a student doesn't care about a subject they will not take it seriously. But give students something they care about and I believe they will be able to succeed in that desired subject. I believe we should spend less time focusing on trying to teach students "everything" later in their educational career. Rather we should begin focusing on the things that a student desires to learn so they can begin to excel in something they will love and be good at. This could help our education and educators become much more effective in our country.