Set Our Teachers FREE!

We are firmly into the second half of 2007, and all of the same issues seem to be brewing on the education front.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is still in the middle of a raging battle between it’s supporters and detractors. As expected, the most recent Supreme Court ruling re: diversity guidelines has school districts rumbling and scrambling. And we continue to see inaction on the part of average citizens demanding change in our schools.

In today’s New York Times, an interesting article by Barry Schwartz, entitled “Money for Nothing“, about New York City’s latest school proposal, really caught my attention. The idea is to PAY students by offering a cash incentive for good grades (something some parents have already been doing for years).

NYC Department of Education offers several reasons why this is supposedly a good idea, including:

1) people respond to incentives, and

2) the more motives for working hard, the better.

Again, we see a “bandaid on a gaping wound”, as Don says so often in his book “Set Our Teachers FREE!“.

Prof. Schwartz goes on to pose the very same questions that Don answers in his book. And the article discusses some very valid research that shows the concept of “Paying for Grades” is not only ineffective, but counter-productive.

Again, the question we must ask is - what are our schools doing that takes the love of learning out of our children?

Professor Schwartz writes,

“. . .the plan will distract us from investigating a more pertinent set of questions: why don’t children get intrinsic satisfaction from learning in school, and how can this failing of education be fixed? Virtually all kindergartners are eager to learn. But by fourth grade, many students need to be bribed. What makes our schools so dystopian that they produce this powerful transformation, almost overnight?”

Well said, Professor!

In my previous post of 6/21/2007, entitled, “Politics, Education & Indifference”, I described the very same phenomenon among our own grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And explained why so many of them are being home-schooled for this very reason.

Isn’t it time for parents, teachers and taxpayers to WAKE UP!?!

Join our call to DEMAND better schools for every student! Read “Set Our Teachers FREE!”, discover the problems and solutions for yourself, and join us in Straightening-Out Public Education NOW!

Let’s DO IT!

Brennan

Filed under: Education News