Dienstag, 26. Januar 2010

Education

Should Students Be Paid to Do Well in School?


Some high school students in France will be paid in exchange for attending classes on a regular basis.

This is exactly what's happening in a pilot program in France that started this month at three vocational high schools in disadvantaged suburds of Paris. Accounts will be set up for two classes containing around $3000 apiece. If the students maintain good attendance records and reach performance targets agreed upon with their teachers, reward payments will be added to their class account. But here's the catch: students can't go and spend the money on a new iPod or an Xbox but can only use it to finance a school-related project or endeavor. Philippe Vrand, president of Public School Students group: "...We should spend this money making sure vocational students can get into the programs they want. Instead, students are being paid off ot compensate [for] their boredom." In the US more than a dozen states have started rewarding students with cash for improved test scores and enrollment in advanced-placement courses.

adapted from TIME, Oct.09


What do you think? A good idea or a complete waste of money? Should money play such an important role in schools?

10 Kommentare:

  1. I think this is a great idea. It will give students motivation to attend school and to perform at their highest level.In my opinion money should play a role in school because it will give students a good look into the real world of working for money.

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  2. I think that students really should be paid for doing well in school. Maybe if they were getting paid there would be more and more students being encouraged to do well with school. When you look at everyone around you doing a normal job and getting paid, on a day to day basis, it makes school seem non important. I am one of those people without a doubt that would have more of a boost up if my school would pay me for attentending classes, or even for better grades. When you don't get anything in exchange then you don't want to do it. This is a give and take world, when you give you want to take something in exchange, that's just the way it is. In fact I would be well willing to get something signed by thousands of people to try and get a law passed that you have to pay students. In my opinion they should be given a certain amount of money for attending all their classes, and then even more for every good grade they have. This could help our life today so much, and nobody really realizes that.

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  3. I think that being paid to go to school is a good idea, but I don't think we should have to spend it on school related projects. If we get paid to go to school then we should be able to chose what we want to do with our money. When you have a legit job you get to spend your money however you want. Since school takes away from job time, we should get paid for going because some teenagers can't do both school and a job. And technically, school is our job until we graduate.

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  4. Also, if you get paid to go to school, then attendance rates, and students grades will go up.

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  5. I think students that are in college should get paid for going to school, but student's in elementary school shouldn't. If you pay kids in elementary school then it will just spoil them. While for student's in college it will help out a lot. I think this way more people will have the opportunity to go to college. So I think paying money for student's is a great idea.

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  6. I agree with everyone having written before me. It`s right that this would be a great motivition and that the grades would get better. The students would also get to know how a responsible handling with money works. This are all reasons for students being paid at school, but I wonder who should pay this, as that would be a huge sum of money.

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  7. Rupert H.
    I think that if students were paid for going to school then people would have to pay a tax to pay the students.

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  8. I think that the government should pay the students for this. Considering that all schools are government owned. I personally don't think that the parents would want to pay for school. So the only other person that can pay for this would be the government.

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  9. I agree with everyone. Getting paid would be a great motivational piece. I however think that you should get paid for high school and college only though. While in middle school, to me there is no point. They have barely any responsibilities, that they need money for. But when you get past middle and elementary school, money is a big part of your everyday life. And yes, I also agree that attendance issues, dropouts, and grades would improve with this extra motivation to do well in school. But then also to agree with Rupert H. where would all this money come from?

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  10. hey guys,
    I agree with all of your comments and in my opinion, pupils should also not be paid for good grades.It`s silly that pupils in france get money for good grades and have to buy school stuff with that money in the end.I mean, where do we live that good grades are paid?That`s very stupid for teenagers who are not as good at school and I think they will be discriminated by others at least.In my opinion young boys and girls should get pocket money every month to buy stuff they really like to have. School stuff should be paid by the parents.

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