Comments on: Paying kids to raise their grades

By: Paige

Paige — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:00:31 +0000

I hear you. I’m not an authority on this subject, but it may be that some schools reward for improved performance, rather than just the grade. If not, maybe they should.
This would serve to encourage more students and to decrease the stigma of not receiving any reward
(and therefore being labeled stupid or lazy).

By: goffchile

goffchile — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:47:01 +0000

So basically the smart kids get “treated” with McDonalds, Pizza and money to buy video games. I guess we will know who the smart kids are–they will also be the fat ones.

There is no doubt that education can make a huge difference in one’s life chance, but I have to admit this creeps me out a bit.

By: Paige

Paige — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:06:24 +0000

Thanks for the comment. I’m all about the ‘inherent joy of learning’ approach to education, but really it’s not too far off for kids to associate working hard in school with financial award. If these inner-city kids make it as far as college, their odds of getting out of poverty are so much higher. Plus, chances are, school will become more inherently interesting once they are really applying themselves and experiencing improvement.

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:22:51 +0000

“Intuitively, I agree. School should be interesting and engaging enough that students are compelled to apply themselves to their studies. But if it’s not, or if students’ lives outside of school make multiplication tables and diagramming sentences seem irrelevant and simply not worth the effort, then maybe critics ought to give the experiment of incentives a try.”

THANK you. I recognize the reluctance people might have to start bribing students, but at least we’re not making the perfect the enemy of the good.

And the principal quoted about “competing with the streets” is dead-on.