Feb 13, 2008

Is education getting even more expensive?

Interesting article in the Globe And Mail:

Cash for grades may be 'small price to pay'

I wonder if that would have worked with me when I was in school? I hated it and I did as little as I could in order to pass. According to the article, paying students a fee to do their homework seems to work. They also state that it works not just for the courses that offer financial incentives, but also for other courses.

I remember reading in Freakonomics that giving incentives to people who already love what they do, can actually backfire and cause a decrease in performance. It also can cause the person to dislike the task she used to like.

So is it possible that incentives work better when they are given to a person that does not like a task? The article points somewhat in that direction, although there is still a lot of analysis left to do.

Now, the question is: do I really want to pay my kids to get them to do their homework?

No comments:

Post a Comment