From the Washington Post’s report on the Capital Gains program, in which students at certain D.C. middle schools are paid cash for good grades:
Eventually, scholars will evaluate whether the incentive works. But for now, the best gauge might be the reaction of students on payday. Interviews with parents, educators and youths reveal that most students compare their earnings as soon as they’re handed out, excited by the financial reward. A few, in a show of apathy or rebellion, destroy checks intended to help them. And some walk home disappointed, envelopes closed.
You know what that kind of sounds like to me? Report cards. As a crackerjack student, I relished in receiving As, despite sometimes abysmal attendance records, and would run to compare my report cards with the other kids. So long as the news was good, that is. Too many minus marks, like asterisks hanging on my self esteem? Or Bs (or worse)? With tail tucked in shame I’d slink away from the public square.
Grades weren’t just metaphors for incentives when I was a kid—they could be exchanged for cold, hard cash. I got a nerd rush for making good marks, but I also got scrilla at home. I don’t remember the exchange rate, exactly, but I do recall getting Dragon Warrior II one semester for a good academic showing. Plus I could take the same report card to the arcade and get tokens for grades. (And that could be done five or six times.)
Point being, learning was never exactly learning for learning’s sake when I was in public school. If anything, it is more likely the case that learning is for learning’s sake alone in those poorer districts where the 15 participating D.C. schools are located, where families perhaps can’t afford to provide material incentives. Where’s the problem in D.C. (with Harvard University) stepping in and offering those rewards on an accelerated schedule to boost performance?
The Post describes one very serious flaw to the program:
Payments have been inconsistent, Woods said, even as the program calls for consistently good behavior. One afternoon in late February, D’Angelo and his brother Kyree, both sixth-graders, received their money. But their sister Diamond did not.
“They didn’t give none of the eighth-graders checks,” she said, adding a moment later, “It’s okay.”
That detail alone makes me wish that Michelle Rhee would rethink the program. That teaches students that they cannot depend on school and authorities to consistently recognize their efforts. That’s discouraging! Inconsistent discipline is no discipline at all.
The money, where it is to be had, is pretty good! I would like to have made $1,000 between October and now for something that I was basically forced to do.
Photo by dcJohn
