Stupid idea. It is actually demotivating because as soon as they don’t get paid, they feel like there’s no reason to learn. In addition, there are too many ways to game the system. Teachers could give out A’s for kickbacks, for example. Stupid, stupid.
@everephebe has it right. Grades don’t promote learning. They are beside the point. Grades are for unimaginative education systems that need to prove they are doing something to equally unimaginative government officials and also unimaginative employers.
Last night, my daughter, who is, for the first time in a public school (9th grade) was complaining bitterly about how the school stifles a person’s interest in learning. She says they could not find a more boring way to present the information. It’s no wonder no one is interested in the text books.
She is used to learning by getting involved. No matter what subject, the school she went to made it personal. There were no textbooks. Of course she is getting straight A’s, but I am really worried about what they are doing to her. We’ve suggested all kinds of remedies, but she isn’t interested. It’s as if she is doing her prison time so that she can get into college. And get this: this is the top high school in a major city. 99% of graduates go on to college.
It isn’t grades that will motivate students. It is teaching methods that will motivate students. Administrators have to get over their “discipline first” mindset and let kids explore their world and do work that is relevant. You want to teach history? Take them down to the archeological dig where they proved that George Washington had slaves. You want to teach ecology, take them to the farm land and have them test run-off from the fields.
I could go on and on. This isn’t difficult to figure out how to teach things that actually matter and that actually lead student on to bigger questions. Or maybe it is difficult for teachers who have been brought up within this system. It’s a kind of regression toward the mean that speaks of the general uncomfortableness with thinking in our society. Not just uncomfortableness, but actual hostility if you listen to many government and religious officials. “This is a thought free zone.” That sign should be hung over the doors of the capital building in Washington.