Educating a child is more expensive than once thought.
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You pay the tuition, you pay his clothes, and you pay for his food. To get more benefit out of school, you should also pay your child for going to school.
Ambitious study of Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. paid $6.3 million to 18,000 students to testify his lead towards the education policy, classified as “one of the more rigorous studies ever”.
Students who are paid to merely attend school, like a day job, significantly fared better in their academics as measured by standardized tests. Money as an incentive is a pliable motivator. For these children, money is sweets, is games, is shoes, is cool stuff.
I’d want that. I wish I was also paid to go to school. If all parents did, all students will be rich! Of course it will make students work for it, especially those that are in their teenage years as money is independence. This may also mean training them for the harsh real world, that you hardly see “free work”, that work is done in exchange of money.
Medley of questions in my head challenged the results, even if I accepted the verity of the study. Couldn’t we see any other motivator other than money? If this was implemented, would they really like to learn, which is a never-dying process; or will they stop trying to learn when there’s no one paying them anymore? And are standardized tests the only measure of intelligence, forcing them to like science and math and disregarding arts or athletics?
Would you pay your child to go to school?
Source:Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?; Time
Moment Matters 
Currently schools exist for the staff ( hence the unions and strikes, and huge costs ) — paying the students wouldn’t be a bad thing.
You are so wrong. Schools have nothing to do with the staffing. Teachers want fair work conditions and a fair wage, that is true. Most teachers I know have Master’s degrees.
Those with Master’s degrees in private sector blow the salary, the benefits, and the abiltity to advance of teachers out of the water.
With that being said, the federal government is pushing for more student testing that evaluates the teacher’s teaching. In theory, any teacher is behind this because they will stand behind his or her own work and dedication.
However, no one takes into account the student home life that affects his education: divorce, single-parent home, teen pregnancy, violence, etc….
The inner city schools that are targeted by state testing are the same who deal with the most poverty, the most absenteesim, the most crime.
billgnics, if you really think teachers are to blame, I have to come to one of two conclusions:
1. You are so far removed from K-12 education that your education was the last good education given; or
2. You are an idiot.
An idiot I may be, but also the son of a teacher and one some might consider well read on the subject. But also one who wouldn’t stoop to name calling. I shall just say I politely disagree and suggest your understanding of how institutions evolve over time might be slightly askew.
best regards — bw
I most certainly would not pay my child to go to school… There’s such a thing as doing the right thing for the right reason… Motivation is a heart thing… If you have to be paid or expect compensation for everything you do… what happens when you have no money or can’t earn money…what then?
Would I pay them to merely just attend? No of course not. I agree with Wayne, going to school should be gone to for the right thing. It gives one purpose and knowledge that should not be bought.
Would I pay them for doing well as a reward? Yes, that is something I would do, and not see any harm in doing. Why would it be such a bad thing to reward them for doing well. Many people do it for other forms of doing well.
We live in an environment which encourages discouragement, motivates apathy, tethers children to their electronic buddies and over-protects, hovers and treats them as “demented little things” in need of protection. I guess that’s a less strenuous stance than encouraging these incredibly powerful beings to be the best they can be. . . Yeah. I should get with the times. . . Let’s all go to that lowest common denominator form of “normalcy” in parenting. . . Let’s pay our children to be creative.
– Bernard Poulin (author : Beyond Discouragement-Creativity)
I would not… My father told me when I was 16 if I wanted to go to college I had to pay. So I got a job and worked my way through school. I faired well and did better than most because it was my money on the line… Most around me had a free ride, parents pockets were deep and they ended up with me at my local community college in the second year… I moved on and when all was said and done graduated with an associates, bachelors and masters. I could understand where money is an incentive… I think my way is better…
when I have children I think I would help them with college, as it was not easy working, school and life, but what I gained was worth it and now looking back a little help would have been nice, yet… what a sense of accomplishment.
Hi, and thanks for following my blog! This is an interesting and somewhat terrifying concept. I would absolutely not pay my child to go to school, even if it meant he would bring home better grades. I’d rather the bottom line suffer, than teach my son than money is the only worthwhile motivator. He can learn to be a capitalist in the great, wide world that is driven by money, not at home!
Don’t have any children and …. I don’t know how I would do – if my children were bright – and if I had the money – yes and would expect them to work to get their own money too.
No, I would not pay my child to go to school. I might rewarard them if they did particularly well but not simply for going. Some things are expected and need to simply happen. Not every simple action should be rewarded. Now, I suppose some kids have issues and need a reward/incentive for attending. That would be different.
I’d be interested to see what ses the cohort group was. $ can be a strong motivator for some and not matter a hill of beans to others…
I think merit pay is an excellent idea as merit is rewarded in other professions. However, figuring out how to design an effective method to determine the merit is very difficult. If you just look at test scores, the teacher with advanced students almost automatically gets merit pay. If you look at where students start compared to where they end, the same teacher might not get much while an excellent teacher of students who come in with few abilities might do very well.
Standardized test as determiner of reward also has problems. Some students do quite well on test while others don’t. Teaching to the test is a prevalent and, for the students in particular, a disastrous problem, squeezing out a more rounded education not only in the area being taught, but in time dedicated to other, less quantifiable areas with major dividends for children such as art, physical education and music. Let me qualify that by saying that by physical education, I’m not talking about athletics, but about learning how to be physically fit, how to exercise, learning the skills for life long activities and so on.
Another undesirable result can be along the lines of the cheating scandal in Atlanta (and other places):
As a former teacher, I believe the teachers should be willing, able and required to show competency in their field of expertise and if they can’t, should be required to work toward competency within a a reasonable tie frame, or be helped to find a field in which they can better work. It’s not fair to the students otherwise. If we expect students to show a grasp of the subject, how much more should we require teachers to do the same?
I never paid my children when they attended school and wouldn’t today. There are somethings in life we just need to do and not expect monetary results. In my home the children received an allowance because I felt it important they learn at home and from a young age how to handle money and how to save. If they wanted something and weren’t willing to save for it, they really didn’t want it. But the allowance was freely given, not tied to chores. When it comes to chores, I believed everyone does his/her part to be part of the family, based on ability. Mother’s don’t get paid for what they do around the house, why should a child. School falls into that category of things which we must do, but aren’t compensated for.