Paid for School: My Thoughts As a Teacher

When you are in front of the room with a lesson in hand, questions ready, poignant points to preach and waiting anxiously for, more than anything else, questions, conversations and discussions from and with your students about the topic at hand, nothing, I mean nothing, is more heartbreaking than empty seats. The battle is lost before it has even begun. The occupant of that seat will miss this lesson, you, as a teacher, will miss one more day to get to know them better as a student and as a person.

How do we fix this problem?

• We call home.
• We call their cell phones (if they were silly enough to give us the numbers!)
• We make attendance part of the grading policy.
• We make attendance part of the school's policy, the district's policy.
• We send letters.
• We send people from the school to the home.
• We have truancy officers patrolling outside the school and in the neighborhood.
• We walk the hallways during our free periods.
• We publicly congratulate those with perfect attendance.
• We send e-mails.
• We put our attendance online for parents to access.

We do a lot more. Yet, some seats remain empty. For this reason, teachers and education professionals as a whole are open to suggestions. This is why I am not surprised AT ALL by the program presented in Camden, NJ this year called ICE-T ("I Can End Truancy") which is using a state grant to pay a small group of students (I have read 66 students) $100 on September 30th if they attend every day of school until then as well as an anger-management course. Is this THE solution? Probably not, but it might be one solution.

Here's the thing, we talk about students en masse as if they are all the same, all to be treated the same way, all motivated by the same things and all coming from the same environment, but they ARE NOT. You were a student once (maybe you still are), are you exactly the same as every other person you went to school with? Did you all perceive school the same way? Did you all enjoy the same successes in the same classes? I don't even know who you are thinking about right now and I know the answer is NO.

Some people are intrinsically motivated, not requiring any kind of outside input to want to learn, get good grades, be at school, or be active in the school community. Most others require some sort of extrinsic motivation, whether it be positive or negative, to do the same things. The types of extrinsic motivation also vary from parental pride/disappointment, grades/college choice, scholarships, money or social status (just to name a few!). I think these are just the facts. And I do believe that there is a portion of the population that could be positively motivated by being paid to go to school.

I understand the dissent expressed by many that paid students may get used to a "handout" mentality, or that students may feel that they are entitled to some sort of payment for their schooling, however, I have two over-arching issues in my mind that argue those down:

1. The money should not be "free"and the value of the education must be appreciated by ALL. Valuable learning outweighs monetary bonuses in the long-run. While students are motivated by this little carrot, they should be exposed to the best program available. There should be evidence of the greater gain that they can continue to appreciate if they invest themselves in their education.
2. Sometimes being motivated by money says more than "I like handouts." A student motivated by money may really be saying, "I'm hungry," or "I'm tired" or "I didn't think I could help my family by going to school." I've lost the battle with too many students over the years that chose the workforce over the classroom simply because their family needed it. Good students. Students that I could have long and difficult conversations about their life as it spread out before them conflicted with the reality of their TODAY. If such a grant existed for these students... If my students didn't have to choose between putting off their own education until their younger siblings were grown up enough to all hold part-time jobs together, rather than those of age splitting bills by working around the clock in jobs rather than careers.

SO... What IF Students Got Paid To Go To School?

Just like any other motivational tool, I think money would help with some students, hurt with others, make absolutely no difference with a select group, and ultimately fail if not implemented correctly and carefully. It can work if done correctly, if we can just find some wonderful source to fund it!

This post is written as part of the What IF? Project hosted here on the Rivera Runs Through It Blog. Each week a new "What if?" question is presented and I do my best to respond to the query.  You are invited to as well. This week's "What if?" was

What if students were paid to go to school?


 [I also answered this question from the perspective of a learner, to read that response, see Paid for School: My Experience As A Learner]