"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.

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.