Welcome to the Why Learning Matters Project, a collaborative effort to gather and share analogies, stories, and methods that help students want to learn for themselves.

The arrival of new AI tools has made many of us think more about why we ask students to do certain tasks. A key idea from educator Emily Pitts Donahoe is that the way forward involves students truly seeing the point of their work and wanting to do it.

In her post, "More on AI and Academic Integrity," she explains that AI doesn't create a brand new problem. Instead, it clearly shows us an existing challenge: students often don't feel a real connection to their schoolwork or see its lasting worth. This project aims to help teachers address what AI brings to light about student motivation.

Our goal here is to offer useful ideas that help students feel the importance of their own thinking and effort. We believe that with the right approaches, we can help them understand that learning is more than just grades—it's about building skills and understanding that will serve them well in their lives.

This site is a growing set of ideas shared by caring teachers like you. We invite you to look through them. And, if you have a good comparison, a moving story, or a classroom method that has helped your students, please think about sharing it with our group. You can easily contribute your strategy and help us make this collection of ideas better for teachers everywhere. 

Every idea shared can cause an important new understanding for a student or give fresh thoughts to another teacher.