New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a new plan for raising the grades of public school students: Give them cell phones. Bloomberg is suggesting the school district use the phones (including minutes) as an incentive to motivate students to excel above and beyond in their schoolwork.
The suggestion has raised the eyebrows of many purists who would rather kids excel for the love of learning or out of ambition. However, in reality, many students need an additional pull.
Posted by Kristin Mehler
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21 Comments
Are there any students who don’t already have a cell phone????
I think adults have to be about 10 years behind the times in everything.
Actually I would pay students cash for good grades. Cash is the best incentive ever invented. They would earn cash for each grade and also for perfect attendance and for no disciplinary events.
I suspect students using cell phones in schools is among the greater impediments to learning by today’s students. Why would we want to do this?
I kind of agree with Kev above except its sad we would be bribing students to do what’s best for them.
JWink
We agree on this as well.
Cell-phones are a bane to the classroom. They are being used to cheat on exams. Students are brazen enough now to pull out a cell and call mommy and daddy to tell them “their” version of the story when reprimanded for inappropriate behaviors.
I can see no practical reason to allow them in class. No, I don’t want to here any “what-if” Columbine, Virginia Tech scenarios either.
Bloomberg should run for president. He’s goofy enough. Bribe kids! Hey, don’t we do enough of that already?
I hate cell phones. Their only redeeming feature is their use in emergency situations.
But compensation for good grades? WHY NOT?
MOST people are not lucky enough to work in a job they give a damn about doing except for the pay and other compensation. Why not get kids used to reality early on?
In most places of business, you will not have the usage of cell phones while working.Kids better get used to it after gradating from school.
And this nut Bloomberg wants to run for President?
His cover on Newsweek must have given him a bigger head then he already has.
Typical Lib, wanting to spend taxpayer money to give cell phones to kids.
Great Idea!
(Remember, Bloomberg was the lying SOB who tried to kill the Tiahrt Amendment so that he could use gun purchase data to sue gun manufacturers)
Are there any students who don’t already have a cell phone????Posted by: Nathan | November 12, 2007 at 01:20 AM
Absolutely, every student in America already has a cell phone. The places where you find the MOST cell phones are those families with three or four kids, and a dad whose job was outsourced and a mom who had complications in her last pregnancy, but lost her health care coverage the day her husband lost his job. Other places where you’ll find kids with cell phones is in families led by single parents surviving on our generous $5.65 minimum wage.
Absolutely, every student in this nation already has a cell phone. After all, at $30 per kid per month, cell phones should be at the top of every low-income family’s budget. It would be absolutely ridiculous to think otherwise.
A goofy idea, no doubt.
However, there is one silver lining:
It would prove, beyond a doubt, that most kids can’t count!
Do you know very many kids who can “count minutes” and not go over?
Good points Paul!
;^)
My concern about paying kids for studying, etc. is that payment communicates that this job is something that you should not want to do unless you are remunerated. Which in turn gives this message: this job is painful and something to be avoided unless you get paid. It is setting up an unfortunate cognitive dissonance situation.
To test my theory, I am going to start paying my kid for every hour he plays video games. If I don’t go broke, it might be an interesting case study.
On the other hand, maybe I should save my extra cash for Christmas.
Nathan,I read a survey not long ago that estimated 70% of middle school kids have cell phones. While not all, certainly a sizeable majority do. I’m an abusive parent, my kids don’t get cell phones until high school.
I’m calling SRS on Steven Davis.
I think the cell phones with GPS locator’s would be more appropriate.
That way, when they call the parent can’t respond “No you’re not” when the child claims to be at their friends, but are somewhere else. :)
Im I the only who thinks cell phones are stupid?
This idea is not about education. Read the article and you will find that you have to attend a low-income school and there is a ‘means test’.
If it was about education he would propose it everywhere. This is merely a political ploy.
In general, ‘Should’ is so ridiculous. We should not have to do this, we should not have to do that. Who says so? I really hate the word ‘should’.Why shouldn’t we have to bribe kids to do well?
There is no such thing as altruism. People do whatever they do for a reason.
Some kids do well because they want to be the best. Some kids f-off at school because they do not think they can succeed and the only attention they can get is negative.Some kids study hard and get good grades so they can get a scholarship (financial incentive). Some kids might be motivated to work harder by the opportunity to earn a more direct financial incentive for their efforts.
I do not like the cell phone idea, I think there could be better ideas in NYC. Subway/bus vouchers, get out of jail free card, tax credits, or cash. Either way, I think for some students some sort of direct financial incentive for performance would motivate them to increase performance.
Wiseman, I don’t know what kind of business you’re in, but cellphones were INVENTED FOR BUSINESS. I don’t know if you saw them from 1984-96 or so, but at $2-3 / minute, almost nobody used cellphones for personal calls.
Actually, land-line telephones were only found in businesses before the 1920s.
I agree with Kev and J R on paying kids to do well in school. First, we pay teachers. If their students learn what is being taught, that’s kind of like if you’re a manager, and you guide your subordinates well so they do the jobs you want them to do correctly, everybody gets paid.
We give our best and brightest students big college scholarships, which is money, albeit restricted-use. Moreover, Scripps Spelling Bee winners get straight cash and savings bonds prizes to spend any way they want.
I’d rather see kids get paid for school work than , “If you want money, you’ll have to do a brainless McJob.”
Is it a “bribe” to pay young people for their work? I look at it more like, “Smart compensation.”
Also, we pay kids allowances for doing work at home. This work supports the family’s needs. If kids do well at school, because payment gives them an incentive, it supports the school’s need to demonstrate that it is effectively conveying knowledge.
MPS, where do you get those high paying jobs that allows you privilege to use cell phones?Most of those kids are going to start out in life from the bottom of the ladder.When you are hourly wages, you are on the clock and that time matters a lot to a supervisor.Talking or texting on a cell phone while working will get you fired.
“”"I kind of agree with Kev above except its sad we would be bribing students to do what’s best for them.”"”
It is not really a bribe. School should be looked at as a “job” by students. You go to work, do your job well, you get money. None of us would go to work tomorrow if our employer said “hey, if you have perfect attendance, no disciplinary entries and do real good work, we might pay you in 10 years”. But that is essentially what we tell students in school. I would rather tell them “hey, if you get a XXX GPA, you get $XXX per semester.” And, if you get have perfect attendance for a year, you get $XXX for that. Same for no disciplinary problems.