Tonight I was watching the NBC Nightly News when they did a segment on a school district in Washington, D.C. that was paying its students for good behavior and good grades. The lady who was heading up the push for this program said that her school at one point had only 8% of it’s eighth grade students on level with their math classes. Really? Only 8% and now you’re going to pay them so that they have an incentive to do better in school?
Here is my two cents on this subject. Since when has the idea of being able to get a job and live life due to doing well in school become not enough to encourage students? When did passing all of your classes become less important than video games and Nike Shoes? Where did these students get the idea that they can not work in school and still expect to be a Michael Jordan or a Julia Roberts?
I think once those questions are answered, then this school system can determine what they NEED to do, not what they can do, to solve this educational problem. When parents finally see, and take the initiative to change, their students lifestyles to focus on what is required of them in school, then things can change without having to dangle governmental money in front of their faces.
What I think needs to be done is that these kids need to see, on a daily basis, what will become of them if they don’t do well in school. They need to be aware of how important it is now days to have a minimum of a high school diploma, and be reminded of that every time they walk in the classroom.
A lot of the kids who aren’t doing well, or have a lower comprehension rate, are the result of family negligence. That is sad to me. Families don’t pay enough attention to their kids to help give them a foot-hole to do well in school. Instead, these kids are more focused on the social aspect of school and making an impression on those they spend their free time with. How about instead of being popular because you got a Play Station 3 for your birthday, you’re popular because you earned scholarship money for college because of your hard work in class. How many NFL players are drafted into the league with no high school diploma or only a GED?
Our nation needs to focus on primary education and what changes need to be made so that our posterity can succeed. We don’t need to entice them with monetary gain, but instead a way to provide for their family and the ability to be what they want to be. Schools should never have only 8% of their students on par with the required material. Never. People all over the world try so hard to do well in school so that they can come study HERE! People sacrifice so much to be able to come to the United States so that they can be what they have always dreamt, but somehow our nation is full of so many students who just want to get through whats required in any way they can, even if it is by the seat of their pants.
