What's new
By:

Should We Reward Good Students?

Hekate said:
Never ever seen a better way to divide students. Yes, good behaviour should be rewarded and some bad behaviours should be punished but school events should be for all. This is at best demotivational for students who don't get A's.

This may even increase bullying.

For CT. The first one is pretty effective way to get kids to read a book. Second one requires talent therefore some kids are bound to fail. Losers will always feel left out in competitions unless you are giving them pizza too. You can always reward the winner with better seats, first to get the pizza I don't know etc.
Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more.

At some point, kids have gotta learn that their grades matter. Not all grades are created equal. Most students feel entitled to their "A" grades. All students move along whether they demonstrate the skills or not.

This isn't lil league soccer. Everyone shouldn't get trophies because they showed up. We need to get back to advancement based on demonstration of skills education rather than this monster we have today.

These parents should be helping their kids to get As not protesting the pizza party. Why punish achievement?

That's our education system for ya. Some kids care and really invest themselves. Usually their parents are engaged. Most are apathetic and their parents are completely disengaged but will get up in arms over things like these. Some are really bad students with family situations that would make you throw up.

But that's our education system for ya! They'll advance no matter how little they demonstrate the skills required.

I'm not endorsing pizza parties. I feel that a lot of the programs we have at school to motivate students are wasteful. But I have no problem with it. Kids will be divided and bullied no matter whether you have a pizza party or not.

Let's stop bitching about the failures and start celebrating the successes! It's weird how as a society we idolize the winners. Yet, in education, we focus only on the losers.

The best cure for 99 percent of all ailments is to get off your *** and to achieve.

Should we reward good students? Why shouldn't we? Should we reward bad students for being bad? We seem to with all the exceptions we give them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The Thriller said:
I couldn't disagree more.

At some point, kids have gotta learn that their grades matter. Not all grades are created equal. Most students feel entitled to their "A" grades. All students move along whether they demonstrate the skills or not.

This isn't lil league soccer. Everyone shouldn't get trophies because they showed up. We need to get back to advancement based on demonstration of skills education rather than this monster we have today.

Most students with "IEPs" are students who are just too damn lazy. So the spineless counselors will find excuses for them. I have one student who is completely manipulating the system. His legal guardian thought he had special education issues. So they tested him. He actually have an above average IQ and excels at reading and writing. So why are his worst grades in English and History?

He has "issues." He doesn't like getting up early (unless it's for football at 5am) and doesn't like to do stuff in class (because he loves his cellphone). He struggles with attendance because he loves McDonald's.

I'm sorry if he feels bad about missing out on a pizza party. But it's his own damn fault that he's getting straight Fs instead of As. And this kid will move onto the next grade regardless of what little he demonstrates this year.

That's our education system for ya. Some kids care and really invest themselves. Usually their parents are engaged. Most are apathetic and their parents are completely disengaged. Some are really bad students with family situations that would make you throw up.

I'm not endorsing pizza parties. I feel that a lot of the programs we have at school to motivate students are wasteful. But I have no problem with it. Kids will be divided and bullied no matter whether you have a pizza party or not.

Let's stop bitching about the failures and start celebrating the successes! It's weird how as a society we idolize the winners. Yet, in education, we focus only on the losers.

The best cure for 99 percent of all ailments is to get off your *** and to achieve.

Should we reward good students? Why shouldn't we? Should we reward bad students for being bad? We seem to with all the exceptions we give them.
Click to expand...

Grades matter. You have a talk with the kids, with the parents. You make them feel they need it. Teacher stuff, you probably know. Where I answered CT was just a talent competition with some stupid rule. Punishments should be when it is about their grades.

Bad behaviour should be punished immediately not after their grade comes. Just because a kid has issues doesn't mean the rest does. May be some other kid had a C because he/she panicked. What would he/she feel when he/she is left out? Even though the effort he/she gave?. Reinforcing the good behaviour, responsibility comes before grades.

Your "issue" kid deserves the F coming his way. Should he be sent to a room with Pizza leftovers? No. You notify their parents and the if the kid continues to fail, it is their parents fault. Probably a spoiled brat.

Education is for all. I have been in schools(as a student) where they only focused on only successful ones. That shouldn't be the case either.

I need to find some time to write something better. This is all I can do after a tiring night. Peace out.

P.s : I think we are kinda on the same page.
 
If schools aren't willing to even point out that in fact, yes, some kids get better grades than others, then you get stuff like this (not a spoof article):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uk...hool-No-it-was-merely-a-deferred-success.html

The argument that the excluded kids get discouraged... I just don't think it tracks. Kids are competitive, let them compete over getting better marks. The schools should be incentivizing doing well. Especially since it seems to me that there are some anti-intellectualist tendencies among American students. Most kids I know are admiring the guys on the sports teams, and really don't care what someone else's grades are. I'm not so sure that's a good thing.
 
Firstly, getting a good grade is a reward in and of itself. The "A" student gets positive recognition and reinforcement over the course of the entire class. One of the hardest parts of teaching is making sure you are just as positive with your struggling students as with your successful students. I would have no objection to a school event where the additional reward or recognition is offered, and everyone gets pizza. I think just these kids getting pizza is piling it on a little.

Some people are motivated by a competitive desire to improve their grades, but some people are not. A "D" that motivates one student into studying harder will disillusion another.
 
I think these kids just got a "welcome to life" moment.

That's not a bad thing.

Guess what, in life, those who work harder will get more. Get used to it. When that part of life changes, then what made our country great changed (the fact that anyone, with hard work, could accomplish anything).
 
green said:
(the fact that anyone, with hard work, could accomplish anything).
Click to expand...

This was never a fact. There have always been people working 80 hours a week and having little or nothing to show for it at the end of the year.
 
green said:
Guess what, in life, those who work harder will get more.
Click to expand...

What a load of ****. I was the laziest, least motivated, most irresponsible student you can imagine. I always got better grades than my schoolmates who busted their asses off. What does that teach them?
 
JimLes said:
What a load of ****. I was the laziest, least motivated, most irresponsible student you can imagine. I always got better grades than my schoolmates who busted their asses off. What does that teach them?
Click to expand...

Well that proves that we should do whatever you think is best
 
fishonjazz said:
Well that proves that we should do whatever you think is best
Click to expand...

Or maybe instead of teaching kids that hard work will always, unfailingly yield tremendous amount of success, maybe we should teach them that success mostly has to do with factors outside their control?
 
JimLes said:
Or maybe instead of teaching kids that hard work will always, unfailingly yield tremendous amount of success, maybe we should teach them that success mostly has to do with factors outside their control?
Click to expand...

Talk about demotivizing... Geez. Yep, let's teach our kids that whatever you do, it doesn't matter. The system is stacked against you. Why try at all?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top