In article <2r08045f059dc7j1go1792m3hbvfeovbic@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Dom <DRosa@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >"Setting up a system of bribes and bounties for both students and
> >teachers might help in the short run," said Bob Schaeffer, public
> >education director of FairTest, a national center for fair and open
> >testing based in Cambridge, Mass. "But what happens when kids get to
> >college, and they're not paid for their grades?"
>
> a) they are adults and they can live with the consequences, since by
> then they are paying a significant chunk of their own education costs.
They will be adults and can live with the consequences no matter what.
> b) being close to the terminus of their formal education, they can
> realize the truth that they ARE being paid for their grades, in the
> form of better op****tunities for careers or grad school.
>
> >Alfie Kohn, author of "Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold
> >Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes," described
> >Project Opening Doors as "an almost guaranteed bad technique, relying
> >on crude behaviorist psychology, married to a terrible goal, which is
> >about passing bad tests."
>
> Better to pass a bad test, than to not challenge yourself in any way,
> and not pass any tests.
That is far from clear.
>
> >"It's superficial from the get-go," he said. "You do something in
> >order for you to get the goodie, and that devalues the act itself."
>
> Guess what - that is true of most of life. Most people work at their
> jobs to get a paycheck. They go to school to get grades and the
> ticket to get the job with the higher paycheck. Real life has become
> much more a matter of economics than was apparent a while back (it
> probably was just as much the case back then, but when only the elite
> and wealthy went to college, there was a possibility of a non-monetary
> reward (academic esteem) outweighing money as a motivator. It's still
> true for a few, but not for the majority of the academic marketplace,
> which isn't buying what educational purists are selling.
>
> lojbab
Very poor argument - reads like an apology for further cor****ate
infiltration into higher education.
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