We have attended high school, beat the odds and earned good grades while doing so. In fact, we (as engineers) have been accepted to one of the most sought-after post-secondary programs in Canada. Why, then, should high school students be offered another incentive (a big one at that) other than the chance for a secure future? While this may seem like a no-brainer, some recent statistics regarding the implementation of “payment” to students to perform well suggest otherwise.
For the most part, we are “paid” with good marks whenever we perform well in school and are usually motivated by that to continue to do well in school. However, this is only the case for a select few students like ourselves; in reality, most high school students do not hold good grades in high esteem. While provincial polls indicate that dropout rates for high school students are steadily decreasing, high schools situated in “ghettoized” areas of the city would say otherwise. These students, who are poor to begin with, don’t see the value of education due to a number of factors that dictate the way of life in a ghetto community. For teenagers living in these areas, the prevailing feeling is that the system has abandoned them and they must now fend for themselves. In a world where instant gratification is by far more important than long-term goals, education takes the back seat to surviving. When it feels like you’ve been stuck somewhere where no one cares for others, the only thing you can do is make life as tolerable as possible.
While this is not hard news, these teens are subject to extreme poverty, drugs and gang violence. As a result, these teens are drawn into this world by the lure of instant gratification, usually in the form of money. When these students are given money and the opportunity for receiving more is present, these students drop out of high school as they become involved in harmful activities. As a result, while the dropout rates for all high school students has decreased, the dropout rates for students in ghettoized areas have remained the same or have increased.
In an effort to keep these teens in school and off the streets, some school boards have introduced a system where they offer small allotments of money if students do well. The goal of this introduction is to offer something for the students in school that rivals some of the rewards received when participating in less-reputable “street” activity. For every student who does exceedingly well in school, a small amount of money is given or accumulated over the course of the year. By offering students, who are otherwise living in poverty, some other incentive to stay in school and continue their education, they help provide students more opportunities to see the long-term benefits of having an education as they pass through high school.
Furthermore, with more students staying in school, there are chances that gang violence will decrease. For example, it is well known that young teens are usually exposed to this negative activity through siblings or close relatives. Spending less time at home and more time in school ensures that their influence is less pronounced on more impressionable individuals. Research shows that the average age at which teens are drawn into drug and gang violence occurs at age fourteen. It is safe to say that at this age, not every child has the aspiration of engaging in this activity. Therefore, the only way in which these kids are drawn into this behaviour is by using the attraction of money to draw them in.
Given the poverty that these children experience on a daily basis, the attraction of money is all the more potent due to the fact that it’s something that these families usually don’t have, but aspire to possess. With the hopes of making their lives a little bit easier or a little bit more enjoyable, teens, coupled with the predisposed desire for money at this age, will usually jump at the opportunity to receive some. The only issue with this is that the easiest way for them to obtain money is through harmful activities prevalent in ghettoized regions.
To combat the overwhelming influence of gang and drug activity in these ghettos, the school boards have introduced this system in the hopes of combating the growing epidemic of young dropouts by using what motivates these young students to drop out in the first place. By providing a small amount of the same attraction that lures young teens to join gangs, it is almost guaranteed that a smaller percentage of students will participate in gang activity. Furthermore, by offering a form of satisfaction that is more instantaneous (ever liked the feeling of finding money in your pocket?) when the students achieve good results on tests and exams, some of the students will finally realize their own potential. In an environment where society has given up on you, discovering that you have the ability to make something of yourself without anyone’s help could be the best encouragement they could receive to continue to do well.
When rebutting this argument, to say that students in good financial standing don’t receive similar incentives for doing well isn’t necessarily true; students that are better off may receive more freedom, an increase in allowance or even permission to take the family car out as incentives. In poor families where these incentives aren’t there, where are these kids supposed to get their encouragement from? In this way, the school system has stepped in to provide the encouragement students need to excel on their own. Rather than viewing this as a feeble attempt to increase the academic standing of students, think of it as a way to indirectly keep students in school and away from street violence. Knowing that this system is implemented in schools where gang violence is an epidemic and poverty is everywhere in the area, maybe it isn’t such a bad that schools give these targeted teens something more to protect them in a way that their families can’t.
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