Dienstag, 26. Januar 2010

Education

Should Students Be Paid to Do Well in School?


Some high school students in France will be paid in exchange for attending classes on a regular basis.

This is exactly what's happening in a pilot program in France that started this month at three vocational high schools in disadvantaged suburds of Paris. Accounts will be set up for two classes containing around $3000 apiece. If the students maintain good attendance records and reach performance targets agreed upon with their teachers, reward payments will be added to their class account. But here's the catch: students can't go and spend the money on a new iPod or an Xbox but can only use it to finance a school-related project or endeavor. Philippe Vrand, president of Public School Students group: "...We should spend this money making sure vocational students can get into the programs they want. Instead, students are being paid off ot compensate [for] their boredom." In the US more than a dozen states have started rewarding students with cash for improved test scores and enrollment in advanced-placement courses.

adapted from TIME, Oct.09


What do you think? A good idea or a complete waste of money? Should money play such an important role in schools?

3 Kommentare:

  1. Paying kids for doing good in school is a good idea but i don't think it would work. It would motivate kids to do well and focus but it depends on how much money you are giving the students. Kids aren't going to work hard for 5 dollars which is why i don't think school have enough money to do this idea.

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  2. I think in the underpriviliged areas of the World it is a good idea, but like Phillippe Vrand said "We should spend this money making sure vocational students can get into the programs they want." It should help better their future not give them the chance to screw off and not make something of their lives. So in a way it is a complete and total waste of money, especially if they are to begin doing this int he United States, we have enough economic problems without paying students to do well in school.

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  3. Paying kids for doing well in school probably wouldn't work like people would want it to. I think it would stay the same and the kids that do well are also the same people who would be getting paid which is fine but I think the school should be more fun and maybe a shorter day and then maybe students would do better.

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