Posted on April 22, 2008 at 9:50 am by Mike Petrilli
There Liam goes again
Why does Liam have such a beef with paying poor teenagers to work on their studies rather than flip hamburgers at the local Mickey D’s? Perhaps he agrees with the ed school professor quoted in the NPR piece, to the effect that such a strategy will “harm students’ intrinsic love of learning.” I might be going out on a limb here but we’re talking about high school kids who have failed remedial math or science classes. I’m gonna bet their love of learning has already been extinguished. Why not see if a little cash incentive gets them to give said love another chance?
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April 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’ll believe Professors of Education who claim financial incentives must backfire when I see College of Education faculty strike for lower pay.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Paying students for grades is not a good idea... My first thought is, how much could you possibly pay them? Probably not enough to the point where they can make more money doing virtually anything else.
Students need to learn the value of knowing things, that there is value of passing your math class beyond 20 dollars for a passing score. The intrinsic incentive needs to be emphasized.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
“Intrinsic value” to whom? Perhaps $20 for a year’s worth of study wouldn’t be much of an incentive. More like an insult. What would students do if we offered a real incentive, like freedom? I expect if we offered the following deal:...
Pass this test of HS Math, History, and English before age 18, and we’ll
a) subsidize post-secondary tuition for the remainder of your K-12 sentence, at an amount equal to your district’s regular-ed per-pupil budget or
b) subsidize employment at any qualified (say, has filed W-2 forms on at least three employees for at least the previous four years) private sector employer, at a rate equal to the district’s regular ed budget divided by 240 workdays x 8 hours per day.
Compulsory, unpaid labor is slavery, black or white, male or female, young or old.