The people who are offended by this clearly have never taught in a public school. I taught humanities in NYC for years, and I can say from experience that a lot of kids will not do a lick of schoolwork without a reward of some kind promised to them. Paying kids for their output could easily be one of the most efficient ways to boost test scores, graduation rates, and get kids doing schoolwork.
And isn't that what modern education is all about? Since Skinner and Dewey proved without a doubt that learning and behavior are the same thing, all we have to do is find a way to get kids to complete their homework, take their tests, and do as their told. So what if their intrinsic motivation is killed and their personal values are replaced with invoices? So what if they develop a contempt for education?
Kids need to know that if someone is not promising cold hard cash, it ain't worth doing. The most important lesson we can instill is that learning is painful, boring, and a waste of time unless you can swing a new iPod or DS game out of it. Schools have done an excellent job of instilling this for decades now, but again, just saying, "F*** it, let's just pay the little sh**s," is far more efficient.
I support this entirely. Let's do away with the farcical pretense that school is about learning and that education has inherent value. Compulsory mass government schooling is already premised as such and explicitly behaviorist. If we're going to use operant conditioning and treat kids like rats in a maze, let's at least do it honestly and intelligently.
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The people who are offended by this clearly have never taught in a public school. I taught humanities in NYC for years, and I can say from experience that a lot of kids will not do a lick of schoolwork without a reward of some kind promised to them. Paying kids for their output could easily be one of the most efficient ways to boost test scores, graduation rates, and get kids doing schoolwork.
And isn't that what modern education is all about? Since Skinner and Dewey proved without a doubt that learning and behavior are the same thing, all we have to do is find a way to get kids to complete their homework, take their tests, and do as their told. So what if their intrinsic motivation is killed and their personal values are replaced with invoices? So what if they develop a contempt for education?
Kids need to know that if someone is not promising cold hard cash, it ain't worth doing. The most important lesson we can instill is that learning is painful, boring, and a waste of time unless you can swing a new iPod or DS game out of it. Schools have done an excellent job of instilling this for decades now, but again, just saying, "F*** it, let's just pay the little sh**s," is far more efficient.
I support this entirely. Let's do away with the farcical pretense that school is about learning and that education has inherent value. Compulsory mass government schooling is already premised as such and explicitly behaviorist. If we're going to use operant conditioning and treat kids like rats in a maze, let's at least do it honestly and intelligently.