What is Digg?207 Comments
- inactive, on 09/11/2008, -1/+49The first time I saw this story, I thought the KIDS paid the TEACHERS for the grades, which is how it usually works.
- WhiskeyWrites, on 09/11/2008, -3/+37"The program is aimed at freshmen because research shows a correlation between how well students do in 9th grade to overall high school success" - I have a feeling that cash incentives for grades will ruin that correlation. Once the direct cash incentives are gone, do they think many of these students will be as interested in learning? This seems like just the wrong thing for a public school to be doing.
- friz, on 09/12/2008, -4/+27This is a terrible idea. The idea of an education is prepare for the future and allow you to make money for the FUTURE. Why do we need to hold someone's hand and spoon feed them to learn? I don't understand this at all.
Say we do this for high school. What happens when they go to college? "Oh I don't have a reason to try and work hard and learn as much as I can because I'm not getting paid now." Somewhere in the article someone says how they won't slack off because they like green right? Well someone should inform them that better grades in HS means a better college scholarship which translates into LESS debt and a better education (assuming that the good grades in HS translates into a better University than the C student would attend) so that they can make MORE money in the real world.
I don't see this idea as being a good idea. Also, just because a kid makes money now in school doesn't mean he will be enticed to go to college with his good grades. The wrong motivation is working here. They may see college as a waste of time to earn "more green" and simply drop out because they were motivated by short term money. - acmaurer, on 09/11/2008, -7/+29do you really think giving them CASH is the proper incentive? sure it might work, but it just doesn't sit right with me
- garths, on 09/12/2008, -1/+17So if I'm a teacher teaching 5 classes a day, 30 students per class, raking in $25/student for my kickback, then I will have made.... a profit.
- inactive, on 09/12/2008, -8/+23school is a privilege that you are lucky simply not to be paying for.....this is wrong in every conceivable way....if you don't want to learn, then DON'T
- monevent, on 09/11/2008, -17/+32this is a fine idea. kids need incentives - we all do. this is the same method used in employment: do a good job; earn more cash. why not share the goal/value system here and turn out kids who have learned their basic education along with social economics.
- MCA2142, on 09/12/2008, -0/+11I guess reality works differently for each country.
I grew up in Korea, and I didn't need money to get good grades. It was something that was to be expected, from my teachers, parents, and even friends.
The smarter kids were more popular in Korea. Just shows how different "reality" is per country. - keikeila, on 09/12/2008, -2/+13My God, the fact that we are resorting to cash to get kids motivated enough to do well in school says a lot about our education system and philosophy. However, if this does get kids to realize the potential in education and its importance, than I'm glad that they're doing this. I only hope that the kids will eventually earn A's just for the desire to learn.
- inactive, on 09/12/2008, -0/+11So you were an idiot until you took a medication, and then you were a "genius"? I'm calling mega ***** on your stupid story.
- 9bpm9, on 09/12/2008, -5/+16All it's going to do is get the kids who don't get good grades to try harder to cheat, not try harder to get good grades.
- Xebozone, on 09/12/2008, -1/+11I always say that "Student" is a registered career path, why not get paid for your career?
- justjoehere, on 09/12/2008, -0/+10If they get an D or F, they should owe money.
- rharris, on 09/12/2008, -0/+9If the kids had responsible parents they wouldn't need to offer them cash for grades.
- rharris, on 09/12/2008, -1/+10If you are going to give kids money for good grades, give it to them in the form of a savings account that can be used for college. If they go to college, they can use the money for school. If they don't go, take back 25% and pay out the rest over year or two.
- mirunit, on 09/12/2008, -0/+9Problem : It encourages kids to take easy classes. Something along the lines of Gym versus AP Calculus.
- Okitaz, on 09/12/2008, -0/+9My AP Comparative Government teaching was so confident that he did not teach the material well enough that he payed each student who received a "4" on the AP exam $50, and each student who received a "5" $100. Only three students received a "4," none received a "5."
- HarChim, on 09/12/2008, -0/+8lol, this is probably the most stupid reasoning ever. Kids that get As in the 9th grade continue to get As because they're the kids that actually want to try or that have parents constantly nagging them.
- BotchaMcCoola, on 09/12/2008, -0/+8Is some insanely rich eccentric donating all that money?
- striker1211, on 09/12/2008, -0/+8How did we go from not being able to afford books to giving out money to kids who get good grades?
- farfromsubtl, on 09/12/2008, -0/+8However, then a teacher could simply become a very soft grader in order to get a higher commission.
- urazn13, on 09/12/2008, -1/+8It took a teacher for you to notice you slept through classes? I'm not sure that's just ADHD...
- skinny01, on 09/12/2008, -0/+7Similar to linagee's but without the stupid whip comment tacked on. The money means something to someone who doesn't have it. To someone who isn't "low income", getting cash back is not that much of an incentive because you still know you have a hot meal to come home to, transportation back and forth to school, games, computer, and new clothes when you need it. For a lot of these low income kids, the school breakfast and lunch is the ONLY meal they get every day. For them, doing well in school seems like a waste because you have to wait years before you can see the return, but you have to eat and pay bills now.
- notadiggtard, on 09/12/2008, -0/+7I think
"We won't taser you if you get at least a B"is a better plan - bentman78, on 09/12/2008, -1/+7This is *****. You should be getting good grades because that's what you're supposed to be doing.
- friz, on 09/12/2008, -0/+6So that way unethical teachers give better grades to all their students to make money? Also, just because a student is receiving bad grades does not mean that the teacher is doing bad.
Would be a horrible idea to make them work on commission, extremely stupid. - inactive, on 09/12/2008, -1/+7Its a pity that selling H can get them a whole lot more.
Good hustle though. - kaniz, on 09/12/2008, -0/+6After getting bad grades one year in school, my parents started to offer me $20 per A. I got allot more A's after that. As a kid, at times it can be difficult to see the long-term value in education, and it just seems like an annoying thing that ruins your 'fun time'. However, as a kid, I can see the short-term gain in getting an extra $80 or so each report card.
- alamedaman, on 09/12/2008, -1/+7instead why don't we make school voluntary and not compulsory. That way those who disrupt learning will have the chance to go off and do whatever they want, while those who truly value education can stay.
- x1soundgarden1x, on 09/12/2008, -0/+5Yeah, as the first poster said, kids need an incentive but is this an incentive to learn or to get letter grades? If schools pay kids for A's then children will just take classes that guarantee A's. This creates an incentive to game the system with easy classes and to cheat in them rather than to actually gain knowledge. Even though I'm not a fan of standardized tests, this system would make much more sense if they were paying you for a high test score on an AP exam, SAT, or state assessment examination where cheating would be much harder and it is more likely that you'd have to demonstrate real knowledge.
- Import98, on 09/12/2008, -1/+6This is ridiculous. Paying for grades is *****, their incentive is getting an education. Now taxes will go up so lazy kids can get paid for not failing school and yet if there was no money, they would fail.
- inactive, on 09/11/2008, -0/+5You may be right.
- urazn13, on 09/12/2008, -4/+9No, this isn't. The proper incentive for getting good grades should be a fine education that can get you into college. $300 a year for "low-income" kids is pot money. This is welfare at its finest.
- nomadofthehills, on 09/12/2008, -1/+6Entitlement? This is exactly the opposite. This rewards hard work and dedication. I don't think you understand the concept.
- Duncast, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4My sister's school did this, she got a cash cheque each time she got good grades, she got around $300 for first year, and $800 for her senior year, incrementing each year. She ended up with a TER of 93 (Which is a score out of 100 given in SA in order to give university places to the brightest kids.)
- Alphateam, on 09/12/2008, -1/+5Those people will find a way to cheat the system like they do every system in place. Come on it is Chicago.
- cotaskmemalloc, on 09/12/2008, -1/+5160? Reaaaaaaaallly?
- NeoCortex, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4Here's an incentive to learn: Nobody wants to be a dumbass the rest of their life.
- farfromsubtl, on 09/12/2008, -6/+10If it were to work, it still wouldn't sit right with you? There are plenty of ways for kids to get cash: hand-outs from wealthy parents, after school jobs, stealing, drug dealing- from negative to positive, none of these will also have the added benefit of an education.
If this program is coupled with responsible parents who then encourage the kids to budget the money and put it toward worthwhile purchases that will get their life rolling, then this idea could have phenomenal effects on our society. - linagee, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4Oh you pay. Much later in life in property taxes. (Part of those taxes fund schools.) Even if you rent and don't get charged property taxes directly, you're still paying indirectly when your landlord writes that check for them.
I suppose the exception would be the street bum with neither mortgage nor rent. - urazn13, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4"Separate but equal" my ass
- Laserdragon, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4I don't think thats true at all. I've known plenty of people who dropped out of college in their freshmen year because they couldn't adjust to the different culture of college. Worse, many people never go back and try again even if they get more mature because life catches up with them (living expenses, kids, etc.) I think this program will exacerbate the problem.
- govsucks, on 09/12/2008, -3/+7WOW, we should try this with robbers, we all need incentive after all. /s
Another dumb idea brought to you by the collective. Beside that, the same class warfare collectivist idiots that propose this will get all upset when some Asian and white kids start banking at school and all the sudden the whole thing will be "unfair" cause some kids will work far harder than others and the other will then claim to be "disadvantaged" just like they have been trained to do. - jamesdew, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4I think wealthy kids probably on average are smarter. But being poor does not mean that you are stupid and we should certainly not be writing off the poor.
- suth, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3A car isn't an investment, it's a liability... Then they'd have to pay for gas, insurance (around here they probably would skip that part), repairs, tag, etc.
School's a public service, why don't kids just use it to invest in their future by getting an education? - inactive, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3Repubs will probably ban this practice. they do not want educated people, it makes them lose votes!
- andrew606, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3heard this on the news the other day...its teaches kids that their education only matters because they are getting paid to do learn. not to learn to become a better person....and 20 bucks for a C? WTF ...fine if they work really hard give them some cash for an A. but for a C?? seriously? 20 buck for being average? that just cheapens the whole point of education.
- jdevine420, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3With this, they should make school slightly and increasingly harder to help raise education standards in the city and then hopefully around the country.
- uselessexpert, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3Friz... you hit this nail right on the head!
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