© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
My hometown public school district is taking on often-absent high school slackers by announcing that, regardless of how a student does academically, if absent 10 percent or more, he or she fails the course. The idea is that under threat of losing credit the slackers who somehow could not get themselves to go to school will suddenly put their noses to the grindstone.
Will they? What published research supports this approach? Sure, when we smack students with our stick there is a chance that the students will thank us in their prayers for teaching them discipline. Or we could get consequences we did not expect — student outcomes worsen rather than improve.
I understand the urge to get tough with students. I was an English teacher at
If these young people fail courses after doing well on the tests, quizzes and homework, they will lose what little respect they had for public schools. Even though there is mandatory attendance, there is not mandatory buy-in. Schools may have their bodies, but not their minds.
Students have free will and many are incredibly shortsighted. They should eat right, do homework, drive responsibly and not hang with the “wrong” kids. Each day they should rush to school and sit all a twitter to hear what words of wisdom the teachers have to say. They should.
The problem with sticks
My father said about his time in the military, “The military cannot make someone do something, but it can make that person sorry they did not.” That is the philosophy of the stick. It works some of the time.
It does not work with those students who, when told that if they do not graduate they will end up living under a bridge, say, “Oh, well.” That stick thing is just a waste of time. Right now at least a third of the students do not even graduate from a free public school education. Does anyone think using a stick will reverse that trend?
What do we want? We want the students to enthusiastically embrace education and apply themselves to it, and graduate. So why not cut to the chase and use a carrot?
These students who do not come to school learn all of the words to a hundred rap songs with ease. They learn elaborate skateboard tricks. Many are multi-talented in art and music. Why? Because the reward they want is within their control.
Use a carrot they want
The secret to getting what we want them to do is to use a carrot they want. Simple.
What do they want that we can ethically provide? Cars rate high on the student “cool” meter. What if at graduation a new car is given away by a drawing? The keys are given right then to a graduate. That would get their attention.
Additionally, to focus their attention, each student could “earn” extra chances for the graduation car. They have to graduate to get a chance at the car and there is a component for academic performance, such as one entry for each C, two for each B and five for each A. Likewise, attendance could garner extra chances. There is no guarantee someone with a 4.0 and perfect attendance will win, but it increases the odds.
The cost of a car and maybe some other “cool” things is so minuscule compared to the cost of one third of our future walking away from a free education. Schools continually get more money for intervention programs. Most just provide employment for adults. Here is something that might work.
At the end of the ninth, tenth and eleventh grades there might be a drawing for “cool” things just to keep the interest up. These are practical carrots rather than platitudes about 20 years from now. To kids who are 14, four years is a dark enough hole to peer through. Twenty years is beyond comprehension. And do not pull out the one kid who gets the 20-year speech. There are millions who do not.
Whatever it takes
What is most important is that we realize that this is not about us adults and what we adults think the students should do. Rather, it is about whatever it takes to get these students to make what we know are the right decisions. For decades only about 65 percent of public-school students have made it to graduation. We must take another look at how students make these decisions.
People opine that students have to merge with our world, which means do it our way. Not when it comes to a public-school education. Maybe they should attend school as we wish. But since a significant portion of the students have not done so in the last 50 years, I reject that argument. In the 21st century we must use a more practical approach.
We all pay for public education. We do so to have an educated citizenry. Shrugging and just doing the same failed policy of using a stick regardless of it not working is not effective.
Notice I do not advocate relaxing standards of academics. The absence policy is really just a behavioral issue. Correctly address the behavioral issues and the academic performance issues will improve dramatically.
Let us forget the stick and use the carrot.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.