If so, then it probably shouldn’t be not learning anything:
Children should be let off their homework as a reward for turning up to school regularly, according to [U.K.] Government advice aimed at cutting truancy.
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The advice emerged after research found that 70,000 children were skipping school every day, despite ministers spending 1 billion [pounds] on schemes to improve classroom discipline and truancy rates.
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Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, said the incentives suggestion could be “counter-productive”.“If you have got somebody who isn’t attending school and you say if you attend school you won’t have to do your homework, I don’t know quite what that signals,” he said.
It signals that your educrats are idiots.
I don’t know whether truancy is due to schools being miserable places to be generally, or because youths aren’t being shown anymore that actually getting an education is a profoundly selfish (i.e., smart) thing to do, or because the truant students have particular issues unique to them (e.g., broken homes, learning disabilities). And perhaps naked bribes might be an answer — heck, give them a candy bar if they show up, or a iTunes download, or something. Why not? You’ve already blown a billion pounds on failed ideas.
But the idea that an eight-hour “sit down and shut up” study hall (as opposed to an actual educational experience complete with homework) is somehow preferable to flat-out truancy is bizarre at best and child abuse at worst.
How sad that Britain is lurching towards an attitude of “attendance over substance.” That is hardly a mindset based on the principle of “It’s all about the children.”
3 responses so far ↓
Link podraza // Sep 13, 2005 at 9:33 pm
What's wrong with paying kids to go to school? And paying them more if they perform well? Isn't this the classic incentive, which seems to work well in all other instances when we want to see somebody do something.
I'm convinced that it is near impossible for a child's mind to appreciate the value of his own education. This appreciation can't come until later in life. So in the meantime, let's bribe them.
Link podraza // Sep 13, 2005 at 9:35 pm
Upon reading my own comment, it might seem as though I misread Kip's post. I didn't. I am just wondering why nobody considers paying kids as a tool to motivate them.
Link Tony // Sep 14, 2005 at 10:55 am
Chris Rock had the perfect bit that relates here.
"I take care of my kids"- YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO, YOU DUMB[etc...]!
"I've never been to jail"- WHAT YOU WANT, A COOKIE?
It doesn't directly apply to this case, but I think graduating seniors should wait a year to go to college. Work a job they can get with only a high school diploma. Experience day-to-day living with the responsibility of showing up every day or they don't eat. Then see how they treat college the next four years.
I admit it's not practical and never going to happen, but the mentality it imposes, that "education is a profoundly selfish (i.e., smart) thing to do", is what we should aim for in our education policies. We already reward kids for doing what they're supposed to do. Do we really want them to carry that message into adulthood?
An example… When I was a graduate assistant in business school, I graded essays written by college seniors. Yes, I graded finance essays, but they were still essays. To read "scholarly" papers with verbless sentences was an abomination. Those students should never have gotten that far in college without knowing to include a verb. I requested that they have someone proofread their papers and/or go to the university writing center for help; otherwise, their grade would continue to suffer significantly. They never did and kept turning in atrocious papers. I wrote "F" on every paper. Should I have felt bad and bribed them somehow? Shouldn't the threat of poor future employment possibilities have been enough?
That's long-winded, so here's my main point. The system should reveal why it's in their best interest to go to school. They need to understand that. That's where our policies should focus.