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A couple of decades of boosting children’s self-esteem turns out to not have much effect on a student’s grades. Oh, praise is still seen as effective, but educators are beginning to reward students for more than just showing up.
A growing body of research over three decades shows that easy, unearned praise does not help students but instead interferes with significant learning opportunities. As schools ratchet up academic standards for all students, new buzzwords are “persistence,” “risk-taking” and “resilience” — each implying more sweat and strain than fuzzy, warm feelings.
“We used to think we could hand children self-esteem on a platter,” Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck said. “That has backfired.”
Dweck’s studies, embraced in Montgomery schools and elsewhere, have found that praising children for intelligence — “You’re so clever!” — also backfires. In study after study, children rewarded for being smart become more likely to shy away from hard assignments that might tarnish their star reputations.
But children praised for trying hard or taking risks tend to enjoy challenges and find greater success. Children also perform better in the long term when they believe that their intellect is not a birthright but something that grows and develops as they learn new things.
(Image credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Gone are the days of a raised and hand and simple “Present.” Now students in one school district must submit a fingerprint to be counted in morning roll call.
The Washington County school district in Florida has a little problem with inconsistent attendance. After weighing their options, school officials decided to place finger scanners at the entrance to Chipley High School, where incoming students are scanned in each morning. Because most kids in the district ride buses every day, and because keeping track of everyone in the halls is difficult, the system will be moved to select buses for a trial period to determine if it’s a more efficient way to save time and to ensure students are accounted for from the time they arrive until they’re dropped off at home.
The program has been in place for about two months, and so far, attendance is up–but not everyone is happy about it.
Identity theft
There are questions about the security of a device that reads a fingerprint, “which is a unique, identifiable piece of information,” and then “stores it in a database, and links it to a name” (Kelly Hodgkins, Gizmodo). Being that the students are mostly minors, it’s a legitimate concern, and one that Washington Co. Schools Superintendent Sandra Cook is quick to dismiss: There are only four or five points recorded in each scan, which are translated into a 60-digit passcode. “We can’t go backwards with it. We can’t turn around and take that number and recreate the points on a finger.” (DailyMotion)
$$$
The scanners cost about $22,000. Per student, this breaks down to about $30 a year each, which is a problem for some parents, and an expense they say the school doesn’t need. But Clay Dillow at PopSci thinks it’ll all come out in the wash: “At $30 per student per year, the system isn’t necessarily cheap. But considering the uptick in attendance (which means more money from the state in many districts) and the inherent increase in accountability and student safety, it may well be worth the cost.”
1984?
Even accounting for privacy, security and the cost, isn’t it “kinda Orwellian that the school wants you to flash your fingerprint before you can learn”? And what does it say about the district schools? As Micheal Trei at DViCE comments, “it seems like a sad commentary if you need to treat students like prisoners to get them to attend.”
But Superintendent Cook has no concerns. “When it’s all said and done, we’re going to find that this is going to be one of the most monumental things that Washington County has ever done,” she says. And parents can always opt out by signing a waiver and having their children check in with a teacher each morning.
What do you think? Is it too “Big Brother” to ask students to scan a finger for attendance, or is this just an example of technology improving an inefficient process?
Sources:
Image: pcstelcom.com
I’m sure we can all agree that it’s important to keep kids safe from the big dangers of this world, but there is certainly a line between safety and stupidity and many schools these days have jumped right over that border. Cracked ha a great list of the most idiotic things schools are doing in the name of safety, including making them wear electric tracking bracelets, banning all photography and preventing all physical contact. Read about the rest over at the link.
Plenty of schools hire celebrities to speak at their commencement ceremonies, but it’s certainly rare for students to request an imaginary character to honor them with his presence. That’s exactly what a group of students from Creative Circus, a two-year advertising school in Atlanta, have requested. Remember, they don’t want Jon Hamm to speak at the ceremony, they’re requesting he show up at their graduation acting as Don Draper.
What do you guys think? Is this a realistic request or just plain over dramatic?
Just this week, the school my children attend got a $500 grant from an environmental agency. The school decided to buy all the students metal water bottles so they could bring water from home and consume fewer bottles of water at school, thereby saving plastic. My immediate reaction was “What’s wrong with the drinking fountain?” National Geographic asks that question as well: Which is better for children, bottled water or tap water? The production of bottled water uses lots of resources and the bottles just go to landfills.
But switching to tap water could be a bad idea in some schools where the risk of lead contamination from old pipes—known to affect physical and mental development—is high, particularly in large urban areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
For instance in September 2009, the Associated Press published a nationwide investigation showing that the drinking water in schools in 27 states is contaminated with lead and other toxic substances from lead-soldered pipes generally installed before 1985.
Some school don’t test the water because of the high cost of replacing pipes. They find it more cost-effective to serve bottled water, or even soft drinks to children. Link
(image credit: Flickr user Isobel T)
The Boston Latin School, a private prep school, issued a press release in the hopes of quashing rumors that the school is infested with vampires:
“The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected,” said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.
In my experience, when an authority figure denies that there is a problem, the problem has become much, much worse than feared.
McSweeney’s has a fantastic compilation of childrens’ letters to Obama. Some of them are so adorably fantastic. It seems to be kids between 5 and 12 mostly. Even if you don’t like Obama, you still can appreciate the innocence of their words.
Dear President Obama,
When you are president, don’t eat junk food. Junk food makes you fat. Your family shouldn’t eat junk food, either, because it is not healthy. Obama, you rock.
Amy Ramirez, age 8
San FranciscoDear President Obama, Are you going to be pictured on our money? How do you get in the White House? Do you like Abraham Lincoln? Do you have a big backyard? Martin Luther King Jr. had big fans. How many fans do you have? You could help us by giving us food. I am Luis Ramirez. I go to school at Mayberry. I like to play video games.
Luis Ramirez, age 8
Los Angeles
