Does paying people to do what they're supposed to do anyway help or hurt them?After our last hurricane, some people were upset because FEMA didn't pay them to leave town. Some people are calling for student athletes to be paid for playing for the university team.
Now Chicago (and other cities) are experimenting with the concept of paying students to do well in school. That the program seems to be working would lend credibility to the idea that the students were doing poorly by choice, and not circumstance.
Does paying students create a population that only does what's in it's best interest only when being paid?
Don't you feel like punching your nephew in the throat when you ask them to do something and they ask how much you're going to pay them?
The program may be working, but at what ultimate cost to society?
Or do these kids only understand a society of pimps and the pimped?
(As far as paying college students for playing for a school where they're being given the opportunity to earn a $40k a year education - nope!
If a school sells your jersey and makes a profit, a percentage should be given to that student upon their graduation or upon leaving the school [and at the loss of their eligibility].)
5 comments:
In theory it sounds messed up to me. But we do reward our kids for good behavior don't we? I mean, isn't that why Santa Claus is checking his list every year?
I don't think its a bad idea to pay kids for good grades. I think its a good idea to start them early and somehow develop them into thinking that this is the reality of the world we live in.
You gotta love capitalism.
I think it's ridiculous to pay kids to learn. I know for a fact, some of the kids in my school wouldn't have studied more if you told them they'd win the lottery because they were too busy trying to get into trouble or each other's pants. But see me, I made great grades and would have been in line with my hand out and it would have defeated the purpose.
Positive reinforcement can be how we look at this...It certainly can't hurt...
I know on the surface that it sounds really strange - but, students have been paid to learn for a very long time. Maybe not with money but with gold stars and other motivational-type strategies. I don't know - just a thought.
Pay them kids! Whatever works, basically. An educated population, regardless of how they got there, will pay off in the long run. I know that this will rub the 'purists' the wrong way, as it does me to some extent, but there is too much at stake. By the time these kids get through high school, educated, I believe the intrinsic value of learning will be much more apparent to them. I agree pretty much with RiPPa above.
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