Oct 11
It pays to make the grade
Just a quick post. Not even sure where I fall on this, but something about it really struck me. The Washington Post reports that in an effort to boost poor school performance and behavior, DC schools are instituting a cash rewards program. This isn't your parents' $10 per "A" on your report card type program either. No, the school district will be opening bank accounts for the students to facilitate bi-weekly deposits of their good behavior money. How much money would require that? Well, a good kids can earn up to $100 a month every month for just behaving themselves (good manners), getting good grades, and showing up to class on time and regularly. That's a chunk of change!Does anyone else get a sick feeling in their stomach about this? It's not necessarily the kids getting money for good grades. That's been around for a while. Parents have been doing that for a long time. Some of New York City's schools did that specifically for Advanced Placement testing with underwhelming results. But that was a privately funded incentive program. And maybe that is where I am a bit hung up on this.It's sad enough that the schools have to be parents to these kids in motivating them to do well (we'll forget about sex education, discipline, early morning programs, after school programs, and all the other ways the schools sub for parents), but now the taxpayers are having to cough up an extra $2.7 million for it in that school district. I imagine other solutions have been tried, I just find it hard to believe that that is a) the best solution out there and b) will even be effectively in any significant way in the long run.Maybe I'm wrong, but something doesn't sit right with me about $2.7 million being taken from taxpayers to pay students to do what they should already be doing and what taxpayers are already paying for in the first place.
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public schools
school
I definitely don't agree with the school instituting the program, especially at $100 a pop for just good behavior. My reward for good behavior was not getting spanked when I got home from school. But considering the other ways the government could spend taxpayer's money, I don't think this is the worst idea I've heard of.
My biggest concern with this policy is how it rewards "good behavior." It is not rewarding exemplary behavior, or better behavior, but only good behavior. I think the rewards for behaving appropriately in school and in society should be mostly intrinsic and taught in the home. Theoretically, as these kids go through the school system, they could become programmed to looking for rewards for normal everyday "good behavior."
This really does bother me. I work with a group of young men that have no work ethic, and they think they should get all of the rewards without working for them. They think that just showing up for activities means that they have earned the right to some reward. In reality the reward is earned through the work and effort they put into an activity. Although I appreciate their "good behavior," is simply will not enough for them to develop academically or professionally. Hard work and making the extra effort should be rewarded, not simply "good behavior."