sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

August 21, 2008


bribing students
posted by soe 6:00 pm

I can’t begin to tell you how wrong I think this idea is.

Category: dc life. There is/are 2 Comments.



I can.

Going to school is not a job. School is a service provided to you, one you have to pay for. Whether it’s public school paid for by tax money, or private school billing you directly, the privilege of an education costs money.

There is no good reason to pay students for showing up and getting good grades.

Being educated IS the reward you get from going to school, showing up on time, paying attention, working hard, doing your homework and getting good grades.

Being educated creates opportunities for you to be successful for the rest of your life. That by itself should be all the motivation you need: you want the rest of your life not to suck? Take responsibility for your own future, invest in your own education, and decide to be successful in life.

If you aren’t motivated by the values instilled in you by your parents and teachers, then you deserve to fail, and you deserve the life that your failure will bring you.

If you’re the entitled sort who has the capacity to be successful but refuses to do so unless you can get $100 out of it, then I want you to fail.

The guy with the brain that contains the ideas that could lead to the cure for cancer who isn’t interested in researching that cure until after he lines up a lucrative deal, I not only don’t want him to get the money, I hope he and everyone he loves gets cancer first.

The only thing money motivates is greed. Money does not inspire creativity, nor invention. Higher paid employees are not, by default, better employees. Paid students are not going to be smarter, better students.

Other commenters on the article make flimsy links between poverty and drug usage. Rich kids use drugs too, they just use more expensive drugs. Paying kids won’t keep them off drugs.

Some suggest that if you don’t pay for education, you’ll be paying more for welfare, health care, and prison. That’s far too simplified an argument, but even if we were to just accept it as true, there are better methods to pay for improving our educational system than bribing kids to engage.

Comment by Grey Kitten 08.21.08 @ 7:27 pm

I am actually speechless.

Comment by Emily 08.22.08 @ 12:49 pm