Okay, Joanne Jacobs and NRO's the Corner have already covered this, but I can't pass it up - a Chicago high school is going to financially reward students just for showing up to class:
Tickets to sporting events and coupons for Walgreens drug stores are among the incentives that will be offered to Chicago public high school students this year to get them to show up for class more often.
Some kids likened the idea to bribes, but Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan said he was merely trying to "incent improvement''...
Duncan said all high schools in the system will be offered the chance to hold "rallies'' with radio or TV personalities if they improve their attendance. And students in every high school will vie for coupons to shop at Walgreens and compete for tickets to sporting events if they improve their personal attendance.
The Corner folks hated that "incent"-as-a-verb usage, by the way, and I don't blame them.
But seriously. Why should kids get tickets to see the Bulls just because they're going to class? Isn't this method as much as admitting that (a) kids hate to go to class and (b) this is the only sort of reward they're going to get out of it? It's as much as admitting that the classes are worthless to the kids.
Incentives for academic performance/improvement, or for specific tasks, are not unreasonable, if done correctly (I don't think cash or coupons should be involved). But that's not what's being proposed in Chicago. "Improving attendence" does not require the student to actually learn anything. Yes, if the kid is not there, he won't learn, but that fact that he's merely there doesn't guarantee learning.
Joanne's anecdote shows how incentives can work:
I won a trophy for perfect attendance in fourth grade. My teacher had won it in a dance contest at the Hotel Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. I cherished it because it came from Mr. Parker, a brilliant teacher. I would not have shown up every day for a Walgreen's coupon.
Note: perfect (not "improved") attendance, which does require consistent effort; respect for the teacher; a financially-worthless-yet-symbolic incentive. The fourth-grade version of Joanne felt honored by this, not bribed.
Posted by kswygert at August 14, 2003 04:01 PM