The following is an analysis of an article that I found on the US News Web-site. The article titled The value of Good Grades talks about some current methods that schools within our country are using to spark the interest of students in school and making good grades. Go to:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/01/03/the-value-of-good-grades.html
Immediately after reading this article, I could relate its content to the text in Tinkering Towards Utopia and how the issue of "getting students interested in school" kept coming up during the reading.
This notion of "getting students interested in school" is something that the American Public School System has been concerned about and new policies and programs have sprung up through history because of it. In chapter 1 of Tinkering Towards Utopia, the authors mention how in the 1940's there was an emphasis on "competitive male-only athletics teams" and other new techniques to getting boys interested in school.
The US News article talks about schools offering things such as happy meals from McDonald's or even cash money to students who perform at a certain level. On one hand we can see a corporation advertising their product and on the other, we have students receiving money for academic reasons. Incentives are good, we all like to be rewarded and live in a society where we are typically rewarder for our hard work. It is my belief however, that rewards should fit within the certain nature of what we are being rewarded for.
Although I do not agree with a McDonald's sticker on a report card, rewarding a child with a happy meal is not what concerns me. It is the thought of motivating children with money that gets under my skin. I would hate to think that educators have so little imagination to come up with good ways to involve children in school than simply money. What types of values is this teaching to young American students? I find this method as an extreme solution that is only giving students wrong reasons to excel. Should we not strive to find incentives that make students like academics for what they are?
The article does mention how schools are also paying students for tutoring other students. I see this as a totally different idea that is not based on rewarding students with money for good grades but for a service instead. In this situation, the student is being rewarded for extra effort and this would be a totally different discussion.
It is concerning to see how far we can go to keep American children interested in school. It is even more alarming to think about what will be the next move to try to keep students in school and doing well in school and just how these moves will influence our students academically and socially.
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3 comments:
Jose, could you edit the post a bit? I think there are a lot of good things happening in your post, almost to the point where you are trying to do too much at once. Your own experiences as an immigrant who faced Americanization are certainly something that we'd want to hear more about, as are your thoughts on athletics, their uses in schools, and the differences between the U.S. and Spain on this issue. There are also your thoughts on the text and the interesting link you shared. I think you could split this post into three or even four posts and have better, more focused posts in the process.
The edits resulted in a tight, focused post that brings together a link and course reading along with your own thoughts. Excellent job.
I'm not really sure I see a difference between a McDonald's sticker on report cards and a Coca Cola machine in the hallway. It seems to me that companies have been soliciting schools for a long time. In exchange for only selling Coke schools recieve printed calanders, scoreboards, and other equipment and supplies (all with the logo of course). Channel One (a current events program many schools require students to watch daily) is well funded through advertisements with a garanteed audience.
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