PAYING KIDS TO DO WELL
Dr. Andres Alonso at noon
Paying kids to do well on tests?!?!?!?!?!?!?
My first visceral reaction was no way. This is antithetical to what we all believe, that we should instill an intrinsic love of education.
Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Schools, is going to spend a million dollars, in part to pay kids in the 11th and 12th grade who failed one of the High School Assessment tests, if they improve their scores on future tests. They will receive up to $110.00, depending on how much their scores improve. Money will also be used to pay students to tutor other students.
Some would argue, like Dan Rodricks, that middle and upper class families always bribe their kids with cash, dinner and objects of desire if they do well in school. What is wrong with the city doing it for unmotivated kids also mired in poverty?
Others argue it is a quick fix and a bribe that hides real issue of why students don’t have an intrinsic love of learning and why they lose in our schools.
Is it a bad idea? Looking forward to hearing what Dr. Alonso has to say. Looking forward to what you have to say on air and on our blog.
BANISHED
I was not amazed when I first heard that there was wholesale ethnic cleansing of African Americans from towns across America. I was shocked when I found out that it occurred well into the depression era of the 1930’s.
One of our guests, Marco Williams, recently made the movie Banished. It’s about the interactions of three Black families, who were descendents of the banished, and white people now living in those towns.
The issue of the day will be to find out what relevance this has on our lives now. The Germans paid reparations to the Jews who survived the camps, the US paid reparations to the Japanese Americans and the descendents of those interned in camps during World War II. Should the US do the same for those who are the descendents of those African Americans ethnically cleansed from their homes?
Is it different because these are descendents of rather than the victims themselves? Is monetary reparation the only possibility? Does this give us as a society a chance for some reconciliation? Is it just history, something for us to learn about and then let go?
What do you think? Call in or write in at one, or comment on the blog.
Check with you later.
-Marc
