Paid to Go to School
This would be serious incentive for me in my day.
SCHOOL PAYS KIDS TO TURN UP
Wellington High School is paying pupils $50 just to turn up to school.
Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3574774a10~,00.html
Oh my gosh. I can't believe this is what our world is coming to. And I do believe it is a bribe, whether they intend it to be or not, because the kids know that they have the money coming. The only way it would be a true reward and not a bribe would be if the kids didn't know they were going to get anything for what they did.
And I'm not saying that rewards are necessarily a good thing either! I think the reason that students skip school is because they don't realize the value of education(or how incredibly blessed/spoiled they are - think of those for whom education was/is not an option in their lives, period). But offering them a bribe or "reward" to go through with it anyway is not going to help them see the value in it. It's just going to give them more extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation, and then they'll expect to get "rewarded" extrinsically for everything they do that is just a normal part of life! And it puts the students in manipulitive control. They didn't get this reward for coming to school before there was a problem with students skipping class. What's next? If the students start writing grafitti all over the school, are they going to offer a reward to the student that goes the whole year without writing graffiti? Not to mention the fact that rewards and bribery are the easy way out of a problem because they give the rewarders what they want (students in class, behaving, etc), but they do not help the rewarded. I definitely believe that it will hurt the students in the long run, rather than help them.
HOWEVER. I can see the logic of the administrators, or whoever's idea this was. I'm sure they really do desire to help the students and not hurt them. They're trying to get into the mind of the students and find the thing that would give them the most motivation. But I don't think they found it. I would have definitely been happy with that reward when I was in high school as well, but that doesn't mean it would have benefitted me in the long run. And as educators, I would hope that these administrators know that extrinsic motivation kills intrinsic motivation. In my opinion, what works the best to touch or change a student for the better is a GOOD TEACHER - Who doesn't rely on rote memorization, constant lecturing, and/or rewards to keep his/her students "under control." There are better ways.
Name: Brett
Comments: I [definitely] think they should pay us.
I pay my kids to go to school. They get $1 for each A they receive through the school year, $.50 for each B, nothing for each C, - $.25 for each D, and -$5 for each F. If they get all As through the school year they get a $50 bonus. Thus far I have not had to give that bonus. The $50 sits on the wall waiting.
There's an area a few miles from us that can't get kids to attended school without some kind of bribery..they came up with the idea of 75% attendance..they get given a brand new mountain bike!
Not surprisingly attendance has picked up, but at a cost to that authority.