So, this is the new way for students and teachers to interact...money. Well, it had to come down to this didn't it? Isn't money always the breaking point for every educational issue that we, the United States of America, face. If we just throw money at the problem, it will go away. I have news for these people, what happens when the students spend their little stipend and have nothing left to fall back on because they don't want to retain the knowledge, they just want the cold, hard cash...nothing. That's what happens, they fall victim to the same poor schooling and social status that they were in prior to this "Harvard" study. Of course Harvard wants to throw money at kids...they have plenty of it. The fact of the matter is that students learn and retain knowledge only when they see the need for long-term use of it. Can I remember my Constitution test, no. Why? Because I really didn't feel it relevant for daily use...I learned it up to a certain point (the test) and then I forgot it because that was the easy thing to do. What this bribery is doing is taking stipends to a whole different level. It's causing some students to perform that type of garbage regurgitation for their whole high school career. Are we doing any of the students a favor, no. Will the "good" students get good grades regardless of the money, yes. Will the "at-risk" students remember and process anything they learned from the previous year, not if they're only in it for the money. I was looking for a good closing to my rant when I stumbled across a quote. Now, normally I only reserve quotes for research papers and things that really irritate me. This happens to be neither, but, because of the importance of this experimental education and the slippery slope I feel that it is leading us down, I thought I would try to find a quote that summarized my thoughts. My teacher always told me that someone far smarter always had said something far more eloquent than what I would say on important subjects. While she was quite a downer, I believe that is mostly true. Anyways, I digress, but the quote I found fits well, and is by a classic American that pulled himself up out of poverty by his own bootstraps, Henry Ford. He said, "If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." This quote basically summarizes my position; whether teacher, parent, or taxpayer, money does not make for a long-term answer, the thirst for knowledge is the only thing that can really make a lasting impact on a student's educational experience.
Other links on this topic include:
Sun-Times Commentary
Daily Illini Opinions
Dana Goldstein's Blog (no idea who she is)
USA Today's Opinions
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2 comments:
Hey Josh,
The part that made me most uneasy about this idea was what you pointed out - I don't really think paying kids money is going to help them all that much. I'm sure they will end up retaining a little more information than normal, but I'm just not convinced that it will be worth the "investment". The one student even said that he was going to work hard to get that money. I think if a student is that easily motivated to work harder, there are probably other methods to motivate them. Better grades can lead to better opportunities, and if money is what you seek, then those grades will be the doorway to that (and that would lead to more money than you could earn in this system). I just feel that a teacher should be able to motivate students some other way, without throwing money at them.
Agreed Paul, all you're starting with this is a form of monetary bribery, which, if I am not mistaken, is illegal in this country. What the educational system needs isn't the state throwing money at individual students, it needs to be throwing that money to the school districts that need it. To have the second largest gap between richest and poorest schools in the country is sickening. Many of Illinois' problems could be fixed with nothing more than equality.
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