Did your parents ever give you an incentive to perform well in school? As in, raise your grades and we’ll raise your allowance? Or, keep a certain GPA and we’ll take you on a vacation? Mine did. Freshman year of college my mom wouldn’t let me take my car to the campus first semester-and I wasn’t allowed to bring it second semester unless I got a certain GPA. I worked pretty hard to make sure I hit that GPA mark–I needed my car to escape campus every once in awhile.
We all know that lots of parents do this. But when the actual school system gets involved, we get very uncomfortable about the idea of learning having a cash/material reward system. We want education to be pure-for students to be motivated by a love of learning-to learn for learning’s sake. But do we need to do a reality check? Do we need to abandon our high ideals and take a look at what is really going on, and maybe adopt a method that stems from a harm-reduction philosophy?
That’s what we’re talking about today at noon, with Dr. Andres Alonso, live and in studio. Join us!
-Jessica
