Basically, the city's school board has decided to try out a new program in hopes of inspiring new academic achievements within the District. In order to motivate students to fulfill those achievements, the District is going to pay them up to $100 a month.
Wow! $100 a month for middle schoolers?!? When I first saw that, I figured officials must want these kids to go way above and beyond the status quo. I mean, they must want these kids to get a 4.0 while taking all honors and AP courses or something! While volunteering in the community and participating in clubs. While holding some kind of leadership position. I mean, they must be after some serious overachievers!
Imagine my shock and horror when I kept on reading and found out what the District is really going to be paying them for. Attendance and good behavior.
What?!?!? School board officials are really implementing a program that pays students for showing up for class and behaving like civilized people while there? To quote the Post, each student will earn up to $100 per month so long as he or she attends class regularly and on time, turns in homework, displays manners, and earns high marks. You've got to be kidding me.
These kids are going to be rewarded for doing what they should be doing in the first place. Unbelievable.
Back in my day, we didn't get any money for showing up and treating our teachers and classmates with respect. That was expected of us from day one. We did, however, get punished when we didn't behave properly. If we were tardy too often, we got detention. If we were disrespectful, we got detention. If we kept it up, we got Saturday school. And if we never showed up to class or turned in homework, we failed. No exceptions. Those were the rules, and everyone understood them.
I never got detention. I never got Saturday school. I never failed anything. Why? Well, because that's what was expected of me. That, and I wanted to get into a good college. Oh, and my parents likely would've killed me if I'd pulled any of the aforementioned shenanigans.
I did earn some rewards when I was in high school. At the end of each semester, my parents gave me $20 for each A, $10 for each B, and -$50 for each C (I'd have to pay my parents a fee if I got a bad grade). I thought that was generous. So imagine what I think now, when District officials are paying middle schoolers up to $800 a year for just showing up to class!
The DC Schools Chancellor said the District is implementing the incentive program because they believe "this is the time for radical intervention." I agree, but I think the "radical intervention" should be a little different. Maybe instead of rewarding kids for doing the bare minimum, they should be punishing the ones who don't.
This whole program reminds me of one of my favorite quotes in "Remember the Titans." The school board thinks they're helping these students by implementing this incentive structure. But they aren't helping them; they're crippling them. They're crippling them for life.
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