Should we pay children to excel in school?

There are some problems --unintended consequences -- that can happen when you pay kids to learn, as this article lays out :

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/05/news/OE-GROLNICK5

I think this is a fantastic idea.Then, the child should have options (give them 3, for example), of how they are allowed to spend the money they earned. Why do I like this idea? You are giving children, that otherwise see no reason to get good grades some hope! Then they might slowly acquire an attitude change throughout their school years and may want to achieve something great in a career.

Firstly I would like to say " Way to go Lisa...giving it to Western Guy".
Paying SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN, who are attending High School, to attain higher grades, can be an amazing and psychologically BENEFICIAL incentive to THESE CHILDREN. Getting a fixed monetary incentive gives the child a sense of pride which inturns builds self-esteem. We all know that high self-esteem results in many positive attributes that BENEFIT the over-all outcome, and behaviour of the child and the way he sees himself and his contributions to society and the world. I also liked what Lisa said regarding 'JOB INCENTIVES'. So true in regards to work production.
To, Western Guy, not all DISADVANTAGED KIDS ARE 'ghetto people'. These kids come from all walks of life. Many times just 'life circumstances' create the DISADVANTAGES. Financial problems can occur during the course of one's lifetime! The money-maker might not be present in the home, either through hospitalization, death or divorce. Which is not any fault of anyone especially not the Child's. So why not try and do anything to help!

The idea of paying kids to do well in school is not new. I graduated highschool 11 years ago and I'm sure kids have been paid for good marks much longer than that. My parents paid my sisters and I $10.00 for each mark we got over 80% on our highschool report cards (only for the core courses of Math, Science, Social Studies, English and French). It gave us motivation to try harder and that motivation (not just from the money but from the feeling of doing well in school) also resulted in us getting scholarships for University. Highschool aged kids are old enough to have a job and are already learning that in order to keep a job and get paid you need to do good work. School is similar to work, so why not reinforce the idea of getting paid to do good work early on? (We also had a "candy store" in our kitchen cupboard when we were young children and had to use our allowance to buy candy and snacks vs just taking them whenever we wanted. Our friends would go home and ask their parents if they could have a candy store!

I think that this is ridiculous. If there was no economy, then we wouldn't even HAVE disadvantaged children.

Now we want to worsen the economy to fix the problems that a country whose citizens' overall quality of life is dependent on economic status. How's about we just, I don't know...stop allowing a vast array of monetary values to rule us?

In fact, perhaps this "paying children to not be quite so stupid" dilemma, as I am hereby calling it, is a microcosm of our pathetic economy driven lives.

Though money has no value other than what it is worth in itself, we assign variable amounts of it to everything we do, including our time.

Now most of you are absolutely worthless in the way that without money, you aren't going to be motivated to do anything of worth.

Now we want to drag our children into this system of self-imposed psychological slavery? I am calling you all out on this: stop the bull. It is only going to get worse and worse at these rates.

Kids will begin cheating at earlier ages to do better on tests as a short-term result anyways, just because some may lack the mental aptitude, and become envious of fellow disadvantages students closer to the top of the bellcurve.

Janet, that's only a quarter true. Some kids might be born with illnesses, sure, but those who aren't ADHD are potentially able to be pretty intelligent. It's mostly how you raise the child, not genes, not the amount of brains in your head. Some kids will do very badly at school NOT because they're not so smart, but because of a real priority problem. A lot of those kids failing are poor, have a bad circle of friends, have bad teachers or have problems at school, inside or outside class, like getting humiliated, beaten up and such.

First of all the academic level at which education is measured rules out many other forms of intellect which display one's ability to progress. Should one not be able to write something to prove their intellect maybe another means of assesment should be devised. I for one have seen many youth who desire to better themselves but have the gruelling task of not only conflicting morals and ethics, but the way these teachings are enforced, lead to more confusion. Taxpayers already fund the education system as it is. I find it not only disappointing but shocking that more companies (and you know which ones you are) are not issuing programs that assist these efforts. In no way should it be seen as a bribe, to fund the progression of those willing to participate in progressive development. With all this attention on the latest gadget or gizmo, game or garment and the funds that are put towards the marketing and advertising of said item it is appalling to see some of the day to day issues that the youth overall and the economy in general have to overcome. When someone can be paid to collect on behalf of a multibillion dollar entity yet, not take into consideration the view and variables that individual (or those individuals) have to deal with it is no wonder things are the way they are. The term is incentive, is one going to bring themselves somewhere that although they know they are able to do the work they are given, however may have a barrier explaining their view of it to be reprimanded? There are 9 forms of intellect why does the system focus mainly on academics? Further to that should we expect a particular behaviour should it not be nurtured as opposed to negated. It is agreeable to run a business in order to gain profit to an extent but bank on it (pun intended) that the norms of life differ greatly from one who has had and lost to one who had not and gained. Succintly if you are getting the money back from these individuals you prey on (speaking to the corporate agenda) what harm is it for you to provide incentive to those willing to display their capabilities? Do you not decide the prices they pay? Moreover, internships for those who may know what they want to do yet not know how to do it may be beneficial to not only the person but the hiring company. If you have read this far you may be in agreeance, failing that, I think you may be a corporate executive who may not want to risk this year's exotic vacation, or maybe the car you bought doesn't diplay your ego well enough (that is a whole different can of worms in itself). The bottom line is, I will say we ( to display the unity I was educated to aspire towards) as a people need to take a serious look at what is going on, between gas prices going up and road conditions and infrastructure deteriorating, the cost of living going up and the well being of many relying on overfilled medical facilities what chance does the future have if we do not start working on the present? Small changed can make a major difference. Feel free to contact blockbasics@hotmail.com for any more insight.

The views stated by myself are purely that, my opinion baqsed on my experience. SHould there be any disagreeance bear in mind there are criminals getting government assistance in jail, Corporations refusing to act upon agreements they have made with their clients, and people paid to sit. That is all said to illustrate this point, many of us want better but when it comes down to us to do better we rarely seek solutions and often place blame. An insurance company for example, charges monthly in order to get funds "in the event of an accident". Granted said insurance company may have their clients interests in mind, it only benefits you if something happens to the insured (which in some cases does) however, for the select few that it doesn't what to they get for being a good driver? Why is it know that a vehicle owner has regular maintenance (oil changes, tune ups, winter maintenance, etc.) to service their vehicle and that isn't covered in the policy? These are all funds that are saved up for "what-if" scenarios that not only are these insurance companies the cause of but can avoid with preventative measure, like road resurfacing, including driving/transit programs in school so that the rush hours aren't riddled with calamities and or congestion. Now opiniated as I may be, it takes the right people to but these measures in place and not for the selfish reasons we are so used to but, to better a nation which has more potential than a lot give us credit for. I offer that as a challenge to those who may feel up for it, I could be wrong but after all I am human.

We do not to pay students to excel in school. What is essential is the knowledge that reality is a constant state of competition. That our system is really about accumilating a common denominator money in order to survive in a highly compeitive world. In other words the name of the game is to get the money out of your pocket and into their pocket. Your value as an individual is controlled by two factors if you are on the labour side of the coin. Organized labour can represent you and bargain for your value. The other is through education that will put you into a category that is probably regulated. Your value will be determined by the supply and demand of the expertise of that particular category. What is essential to our young people is a reality concept that gives the student a clear focus on reality. I will give any student my personal focus on reality. It may be too advanced for the younger students, however their mentors can edit the material to fit their level of intellect.
A REALITY CONCEPT.

I would like to think that love in the spiritual world is parallel to light in the physical world.
As biological creatures and spiritual entities we are a mix of the two.Instinct plays a large part on our biological side. This same side consists of elements of survival and fear. However on our spiritual or mental side we are to seek love and strive on faith. Faith is a trust in some-one or something. I would think that sailors in submarines need a great amount of faith in their instrumentation as I.F.R. pilots do too. We probably all have had a battle in our minds between faith and fear. Jesus Christ said that God was love. Sometimes I like to think of love as our spiritual body temperature. Too cold is not good. Too hot is not good and can cause serious illness.The question is how do we understand love in relation to ourselves and other people. Maybe as they say it is a matter of thick and thin skin.

Maybe in order to measure the normal temperature of love we would need to go to the parallel,light. Here we could set up a photon graph. In our modern day we have photographs of our love ones,scenery and various other pictures of interest. We could categorize our photographs into what we deem as cold,normal,beautiful, or hot.
Our eyes absorb light,that are instant photographs, that are relayed to our brain that keeps us aware to our surroundings.Here again we have cold normal,beautiful and hot photographs. These so called hot photographs could be categorized as in coming light capable of producing a biological stimulus.The cold photograph could be deplicted as lifeless or absent of signs of love. However I would not put winter scenery into this category,but rather in the category of beautiful.
A movie is something like twenty eight still frames moving per minute and would come under the same photographic category as photographs. The next question is; do photons clash with love? My temporary answer would be that hot photons would create stimuli which in turn could create a chaotic condition between photons and love. This would apply if the light was in the form of pixels in a television set. The picture would be categorized as being hot, XXX. A good example would be to give love the color green. Then give stimuli the color orange. We can give the forbidden the color red. Love is in the spiritual realm and is considered to be untouchable. Stimuli is in the biological realm and is considered to be a desire for or physical contact with a physical entity.

Now lets pretend we are automobiles travelling down the road of love which in essence is the highway of positive co-existence. We as individuals can be antique, classic, or up to date. In other words our education levels can be low,average or well educated.We are approaching an intersection where the green light(love) is now turned to green and orange.(love and stimuli). Our ability to stop is determined by the minds ability which is determined by the educational level or our level of intellect. Should we fail to stop we enter red or the forbidden stimuli. This forbidden stimuli is our excesses of stimuli that stimulate our minds and bodies. Sex,drugs,booze,smoking,or addictions to sweets or food are some of the stimuli that we are prone to get addicted to.
Positive co-existence can qualify as being love. However one must remember that the spectrum can go from hot to cold. However all situations remain positive.

Light is everything in the physical world because it is necessary for life to exist. From the photosynthesis uses the energy from the sunlight. This energy is six times that of the human civilization. Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water to produce the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Truth is the absence of deceit

Even the thieves demand honesty

Always take care of the present state of time so that you do not go into the
future regretting the past

If you do not know what gold looks like do not throw away the rock(values and
relationships)

Every action creates a reaction, however this does not imply that the reaction
is correct (impulse)

All human beings want to live until there is a diminishing of love

Happiness is a state of mind and is usually associated with personal progress
and gain

Sadness is a state of mind and is usually associated with loss and
deterioration

Any group that takes on a name or a label creates a quantified force, every
force has a competing or opposing force depending on their purpose

A sane person can not take an action without first in their mind find
justification for the action

People(individuals) are emotionally affected by love or lack of love(respect
,compassion, consideration etc.) by sound( tone and content) by
communication(thumbs up, thumbs down, index finger up, body language, the
written word, etc)by stimuli(various forms of stimulation that create excitement
and actions)

People(society) are in a constant state of competition that is simultaneously
shifting in a number of categories such as behavior, social status, commerce,
politics, religion, sports, and various other activities.

The power of evil is probably embedded in the excesses of stimuli such as
sex,drugs,alcohol, dishonesty(adrenulin rushes) etc. that contaminates pure love which in turn
creates a spectrum of hate(hate being defined as no use for)

I just thought that maybe some day you could use the knowledge.