Students Should be Paid for Good Grades - Research Paper Example

We tell him going to school and getting good grades is his job. If he does his job well, he gets paid just like a job in the real world.” Just think about it, if you were told that going to the office is your “job” as an adult and yet you derive nothing from participating in the said activity, would you be motivated to go to work? Would you be motivated to work harder in order to achieve a promotion if you knew that it did not come with a salary increase? Exactly. So why should paying a child for doing well in school be any different?

Most specially since financial problems will be keeping these kids out of school later on in their lives. We should give them every opportunity to complete their education and if that means offering financial incentives while they are in high school, the so be it (Fitzpatrick, 2009). Weston (2009) quotes lawyer Jon Gallo, who is a non believer in the reward system as having said, " "Some psychologists believe that paying for grades is a bad idea because it substitutes an external reward -- money -- for an internal sense of satisfaction and therefore interferes with developing a work ethic.

" Remember that the educational system is meant to be a training ground for our country's future leaders. Therefore, giving them an incentive to stay in school and discover their true interests, since they will be amply rewarded for it early on in life, will result in truly motivating them to enter college and compete for jobs in the real world. Thereby giving them a thirst for more accomplishments in their future careers. It may also motivate students to enter the fields of study that are most in-demand in our country due to lack of participants.

According to Guttenplan (2011), the money for grades program is actually helping the country of Qatar to do just that, remove their reliance on migrant workers for the professional jobs in the medical, engineering, and law fields. In the U.S. where we have a shortage in the Math and Science areas, incentive programs such as these on the high school level may just be what the doctor ordered in order to fill in that hole. Tommie Sue Anthony president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science (Toppo, 2008) explains that under their own Exxon-Mobile funded rewards for grades incentive program “We still have students who are not sure of the value, who are not willing to take the courses.

Probably the incentives will make a difference with those students." This is a belief that is supported by by National Math and Science Initiative. Their representative, Gregg Fleischer explains (Toppo 2008) “It's an incentive to get them to basically make the right decision and choose a more rigorous class. This teaches them that if they work at something very hard and have a lot of support, they can do something they didn't think they could do.” Guernesy (2009) argues that psychologists believe that paying students to do well in school may result in various problems such as cheating.

However, she also says that economists believe the program to be a “valuable incentive, especially for struggling students” (Guernsey, 2009). Our country's current financial situation means that parents are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. This in turn, forces the students from these families to take on part time or full time jobs