(AP Language Exam - 2007)
A weekly feature of The New York Times Magazine is a column by Randy Cohen called “The Ethicist," in which people raise ethical questions to which Cohen provides answers. The question below is from the column that appeared on April 4, 2003.
At my high school, various clubs and organizations sponsor charity drives, asking students to bring in money, food, and clothing. Some teachers offer bonus points on tests and final averages as incentives to participate. Some parents believe that this sends a morally wrong message, undermining the value of charity as a selfless act. Is the exchange of donations for grades O.K. ?
The practice of offering incentives for charitable acts is widespread, from school projects to fund drives by organizations such as public television stations, to federal income tax deductions for contributions to charities.
In a well-written essay, develop a position on the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts. Support your position with evidence from your reading, observation, and/or experience.
A weekly feature of The New York Times Magazine is a column by Randy Cohen called “The Ethicist," in which people raise ethical questions to which Cohen provides answers. The question below is from the column that appeared on April 4, 2003.
At my high school, various clubs and organizations sponsor charity drives, asking students to bring in money, food, and clothing. Some teachers offer bonus points on tests and final averages as incentives to participate. Some parents believe that this sends a morally wrong message, undermining the value of charity as a selfless act. Is the exchange of donations for grades O.K. ?
The practice of offering incentives for charitable acts is widespread, from school projects to fund drives by organizations such as public television stations, to federal income tax deductions for contributions to charities.
In a well-written essay, develop a position on the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts. Support your position with evidence from your reading, observation, and/or experience.
We oppose the idea of exchanging grades for charitable acts of donation. This teaches students that by preforming charitable acts that they will often receive rewards when in reality it is making the student believe that by doing these good deeds it is just an easy way of getting the rewards they want. By doing this they reinforce the idea that they can always have the easy way to get what they want but it’s actually hard work that will allow them to receive the rewards they want.
ReplyDeleteIn 5th grade Tori was offered the opportunity to receive tickets whenever she gave her teacher useful items such as: pencils, germ-x, and Kleenexes. Every time she gave her and item she would receive a ticket that she would write her name on and enter in a drawing to receive homework passes, candy, or little toys to reward her helpful behavior. Tori brought this idea home with her; she believed that whenever she did something helpful she would receive a reward. She soon learned that getting stuff for being helpful was not used in the real world but only in her classroom.
Tori learned later in life that she would not get stuff for helping others. Rewarding children for being helpful just reinforces the idea that being helpful in life gets them a reward. In exchange we are raising a generation of self-revolving children. Charitable acts should not be rewarded with items but with the feeling of satisfaction for helping others and making a difference.
-Victoria Word and Madison Whitman
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ReplyDeleteI think that giving rewards for acts of charity completely defeats the purpose. Charity is all about helping people because you want to, not because you'll get something in return. If you only, say, help out at an animal shelter because your parents pay you, then it takes all of the meaning out of it.
ReplyDeleteThen, what is the point?
~Shelby McKinney
I don't understand why teachers tell kids that they get extra credit for doing something for charity. That is setting those kids up for disappointment. What if they go out that same week and work at the soup kitchen they will be disappointed because they didn't get anything in return. The reason for that is because teachers are rewarding them for charity. As you can tell I disagree with this, yes I have done it because who doesn't want more extra credit. I still disagree, its just not right. your mostly buying your grade. I think you should work for extra credit, because you can't buy everything in your life. You need to work hard you want.
ReplyDeleteMegan Blanton
Poverty and world hunger is a growing issue not only in areas of the United States, and as Aericans it is our patriotic duty to make an effort to help bring this to an end. I strongly agree with encoraging charity for nations besides our own among our youth and students; as for rewarding this behavior, not so much. As I stated in my earlier comment this defeats the ouroise of charity and dose not imply the right idea of giving. The basis of charity is to give somthing of value expecting nothing in return. Now there is a way around this seemingly unsatisfying way of doing this. Thus when we encorage our youth to do charitable things, such as food drives, do not reward them with physical things. But reward them mentally, building a sense of mental satisfaction in morally doing the right thing. This where the key to real charity lies.
Delete-yours truly, Doctor/Professor Will Shuffett
I don't understand why teachers give out extra credit for bringing in something. When u do that you are buying your grade. I think you should work for your grade not buy it. When you get older you won't be able to buy your way through it you have to work for it. If teachers do this to young kids they will expect rewards for everything they do. So teachers don't need to give extra credit for pens etc.
ReplyDeleteMegan Blanton
I must agree with the notion that this displays the wrong image. I dobelieve that it is morally wrong to encorage charity through rewards, especially that of grades or extra credit points. The true basis of charity is to give somthing of value to help others, thus epecting nothing in return. When teachers set the wrong example through food drives that ultimately result in rewaring the class who achieves the goal of bringing in the most food, this defeats the prurose of charity. This can be arguable for many angles, point of views and maybe even be found offensive to some religons.
DeleteMy personal opinion is simple and significant. We must teach our youth and pupils to give out of the kindness of thier human nature to help others. Only through this will they acceed the true meaning and foundation of charity. Thus scuplting a better generation to run our future nation [
-yours truly Doctor/Professor Will Shuffett
"Character is what you do when no one is looking." This well-known saying is one I try to live by and a trait that is brought into question in debating whether or not rewarding people for good deeds and charity is moral. In my opinion, there are two ways to look at this question; whether through the end result achieved or the principles and thought behind the act.
ReplyDeleteThe first Machiavellian approach is concerned with what the end result is. This philosophy is based on a book called The Prince by Machiavelli that argues that the means are unimportant if the ultimate end goal is achieved. This can be applied to your standard service organization, for example High School Beta Clubs. As many of us know, Beta requires all members to participate in a certain number of hours of service projects in their community. When these students go to these service events many do the work for the points and others do it for their community or because of a good feeling they achieve from helping others. However, to those receiving the good or the work, it does not matter what the individual motivations were, only that the work was done. This shows the effectiveness that using incentives can have in motivating people who would otherwise not have participated to help to achieve an end goal.
On the other hand, however, the use of incentives for charity can also introduce moral and ideological problems. As a member of the Student Y and dance team I have learned and been taught to find joy in helping others. For example, every year I volunteer at the Special Olympics Christmas Ball. I look forward to it every year and it makes me feel so good to see how much my work (which isn’t actually work at all) means to others. However, not everyone I have served with has these feelings. At the Christmas ball this past year, an organizer of the event asked some of the dance girls to dance with a disabled teen he worked with. Everyone refused to volunteer, except for me. The experience turned into a great memory for me and I will always remember the pure joy on his face when I asked him to dance and the way his mother smiled as she took pictures of her Son’s first dance. This relates to incentives for good deeds because I feel it often blinds people to the joy that taking genuine pleasure in helping others can bring.
Sidney Cobb
As a highschool student, I have been allowed many extracredit oppertunities. I will normally except to doing them if it is offered. In my AP english class I will do alot of extra credit activities, but they all require some hardwork and dedication. I believe the term extra credit stands for credit given for hard work in your class. Any moron with three bucks can walk in walmart or get thier parents to go to walmart and purchase a box of tissues. It does nothing to help thier class skills.
ReplyDeleteMany people say that this is just a good thing for kids with struggling grades. What these people are not aware of is that extra credit can do one thing and one thing only, and that one thing is just improve your grade. Kids can not get a lower grade for doing extra credit. Even if the job they do is poor, they will still have the same grade. Doing this just increases class skills and can help their grades.
Kids who's grades are being saved by the extra credit from giving teachers school supplies, are not going to be saved for long. These students will get the extra credit but when the teacher cutsoff these oppertunities the students grades will just begin to drop again. So this just does not teach students anything that will end up helping them. They will not be able to buy thier way out of everything.
Grades are supposed to be represented with a students hard work and abilities in a subject. When I am given extra credit it will normally be something educational, that has some kind of connection with the class that I am in. It helps develope skills for that class as well. I can understand why studednts are offered this oppertunity for things like the tissue boxes or other supplies, but many kids don't even do this it's just the parents spending thier money for the student. The student does not have to do anything.
I believe that if are to be rewarded it should be rewards for hard work . By continuing to allow extra credit for teacher supplies, we are not creating any educational oppertunities for the kids. When they put thier minds to things that require hard work they gain skills in school and better grades.
Davis Nesselrode
I have to agree with Davis we should all have to work to get extra credit. I think its wrong to buy my grade, but when the extra credit is offered I take it because a box of tissues is like 3 dollars not that much. But in life you can't buy your way through it, you have to work hard on it. So you should start early and go on and get use to it. Teachers let all the little kids do this so know when they do anything else the kid thinks they should get something out of it. But when they don't they are disappointed. They also get good grades for not working ,so now when they go into middle school or even high school they will have bad grades because the teacher didn't give any extra credit. They didn't know how to work for their grade so they don't have good grades.
ReplyDeleteMegan Blanton
The purpose of a charity or charitable act is to give something and not expect anything in return. Giving out incentives in school like extra credit is an easy way to get people to contribute but give off the wrong message. That gives kids the wrong idea when they grow up and they would be less likely to donate to a charity. That makes a world full of selfish people who always expect something back. This is not true of a lot of people but is true of many others.
ReplyDeleteIts more of a purchase if you think about it. " I will give you $10 in school supplies in exchange for 10 extra credit points." As long as people see the difference between that and a real charity I feel its okay. To be honest the only time I give anything to the school is when I get something out of it. Charities outside of school i'll put money into and not think anything of it.
- Doctor Professor/ Quantum Physicist Robert Todd Cameron Bunyea Chief of the newly reformed Zulu Tribe... With dinosaurs
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ReplyDeleteWhen I think of charity, I think of volunteering for something you feel strongly about. If it is something you feel so strongly about it, you shouldn't want anything in return for doing it. You should be doing for the well being of everyone, not just for yourself.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you should not expect things in return for charity, not everything is a charity. for example, bringing in school supplies for extra credit is okay. That is a win win situation because you are helping your teacher while getting some extra points. I strongly agree that you should know the difference between the two.
As a child, I was expected to do a lot of things with no reward. This has helped in my life today, because I love to help others, and rarely every expect anything in return. On the flip side of that, when people realize I dont expect anything in return, the start to take advantage of me... but that is only going to hurt them in the long run.
Torey H
Having said that, I am not oposing the idea of giving extra credit like that, because I know when that is offered to me I take it. I just believe that you should have to work for extra credit, and acts of kindness should be out of kindness, not for what you can get in return. That is just teaching children that everthing you do for someone else should be backed up by something they do for you... which isnt how life works. You give because you want to. You don't give to recieve in return.
DeleteTH
In my opinion, giving out extra credit for incentives defeats the purpose of working hard for what you want. Someone who works really hard in class may end up with the same grade as someone who gives half the effort but essentially “buys” their good grade.
ReplyDeleteI think when it comes to charities, you should not be given incentives for giving. When I think of an incentive, I think candy or a small prize. The person spending money to buy this incentive to give out to people who donate are spending money that they could be using for the charity.
Honestly I only donate at school when I need something in return. In this article, people are donating for money, they aren’t doing it because they want to, they are donating for money in return. http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Paid-For-Donating-Plasma
You really need to work hard for your grades and donate to places you feel strongly about. If you truly want to help, you’ll donate on your own and won’t need an incentive for what you do. I am against and think it’s wrong to put incentives for donating.
Casey Marshall
I disagree with your first point, the students that work hard for their grades would have good grades with or without the extra credit. Now the students that would have bad grades without the extra credit more than likely aren't doing their work or studying the material. Although it may seem there is no purpose to work hard for your grade when it comes time to apply what you have learned, that's when you'll see the hard work pay off. Even later in life the type of work ethic hard workers develop will carry them further than just the extra credit seekers.
DeleteI do agree that when I hear incentive I think of a small prize rather that cash in return. In the link you attached to your post they could be paying money like that for the rare blood types. Also I'm willing to bet that the people being helped from the donated blood don't care whether there was an incentive given, they will just be grateful for the help.
Eli Sutton
Honestly, I don't think there is anything wrong with giving extra credit for donations. I mean, just a couple of points on your grade is not going to give you an A, you would have to work for that anyways.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am offered opportunities like these, I am aware that there is a reward, but the few instances this has happened have not pushed me into an extremely selfish, reward-seeking state of mind. I actually think that they push me towards making donations more often, even if nothing good comes out of it for me.
I agree that hard work should be rewarded and that buying tissues or germx isn't necessarily hard. But like I said earlier, a couple extra points is not going to give you an automatic A, you are going to have to work for that. Then when you achieve your goal is when you receive the real reward.
Darby Taylor
1) Extra credit should be earned through hard work. If you want extra credit, you shall have to make a box of Kleenex from your own skin and sacrifice it to our lord Satan, or make a box of pens using your own blood....which is then sacrificed to our lord Satan as well.
ReplyDelete2) Our lord Satan does not enjoy incorrect grammar......you will be sacrificed to our lord Satan if you ever make one more grammatical error on ANY of your comments.
3) Pluet super te Satan et mors Domini nostri Iesu Christi virtutem, et potestatem suam regat universum terrarum
4) Hail our lord Satan...
-WHHS League of our Lord Dæmonium (WHHS LoLD) (#HillsAnonyOps2013) (John Johnston)
When viewing things from the eyes of the staff and the school as a whole, I believe offering extra credit to students for bringing in supplies is beyond acceptable. If there weren’t an incentive or reward for these acts, nobody would bring anything in and schools simply cannot afford to provide tissues, markers, germ-x, and all other necessities for the classroom. Therefore, I actually find it essential for individual teachers and schools as a whole to provide students with the opportunity to earn incentives for helping out the school and their own classmates.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, this can be both rewarding and unfair from the view of the student body. While students who genuinely care about their grades are granted the privilege of boosting their grades, those students who are less fortunate are not able to be of any advantage at all. Rather, they become excluded and feel as though they aren’t good enough to succeed and aren’t granted the same chances as everyone else.
Overall, like anything else, this offering of extra credit has its positive and negative aspects.
-Destiny Hyatt
There should not be any other incentive for charity other than love and compassion, or else it should not be called charity but a job: because you are getting something in return.
ReplyDeletePeople who start charity organizations have good intensions at first, then later they feel they should be rewarded or recognized for the good work. In this case the whole purpose of charity is lost: which is giving because of love and taking nothing, except fulfillment.
Last month (which was cancer awareness month), I remember waiting to check out at a store and cashier asked the lady in front of me if she wanted to donate to the National Cancer Society, and she hesitated answering. When he told her she would get a free shirt, then she donated a dollar. Our incentives for charity is often times give and it shall be given unto you.
When I hear the word charity, the first thing that comes to mind is non profit. It is not only the owners of charity organizations but also those who donate to them, that forget the incentive of charity.
Nerisia Ngum
Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines charity as "generosity and helpfulness, especially toward the needy or suffering" and also as "a gift for public benevolent purposes". In my opinion, OFFERING incentives for charity is not morally wrong. Whether or not DOING charitable acts in the hopes of receiving a reward is ethical is another matter. I feel that offering a reward for the kindness of those who expect nothing in return is actually a nice concept, as long as the reward does not become an expectation. It creates a cycle of kindness;one acts out of kindness and expects nothing in return, only to be pleasantly surprised by the kindness of others in rewarding him or her for their voluntary act. However, to do a charitable act or to donate to a charity only to expect a reward in return undermines, I believe, the meaning of the word "charity". If one contributes to charity for selfish purposes, can the contribution be considered benevolent? In my opinion, the answer would be no.
ReplyDeleteHowever, those who receive the charity will likely never know the motives behind the contribution. Most likely, they will just be glad to receive the help or donation. Personally, I do not believe that this makes a selfish contribution any more likely to be morally right than if the person receiving the charity knew the motives behind the action. However, the lines between morally right and morally wrong choices and actions are very blurred, and I am in no position to solidify those boundaries for all of society, especially when I can't even do that for myself. Figuring out what is morally right and what is morally wrong is something that all of us struggle with throughout our lives, and the answer to that question varies depending on who is answering it.
Will Grasch
Webster’s defines utilitarianism as “a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences.” In other words, the goal of any action should be the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
ReplyDeleteAh, utilitarianism. One of my favorite philosophies, pioneered by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, it essentially means that a decision is justified if it benefits the largest possible number of people. I feel that this applies fantastically to charity—if more people are going to receive benefits when more people give to some charity, there is absolutely no harm in providing some incentive to give.
To be frank, anyone who subscribes to the tenets of the Beta club, and not to a utilitarian view of charity, is a hypocrite.* Part of the very unnecessarily ritualized induction ceremony of the club is a description of the importance of service to the organization. However, any new inductee quickly learns that this brilliantly idealized dedication to service is actually embodied in… a service requirement. This blatantly undermines the moral right of Beta’s commitment to service, but what it also does is ensure hundreds of hours of service that, otherwise, Beta skeptics like myself would skip.
Beta points may be compulsory, but this does not reduce the value that these hours of service** carry. As long as more people benefit, incentives (or in this case requirements) are justified.
Andrew Bates
*I felt comfortable including this because I’m keenly aware that very few people adhere religiously to the abstract principles of the organization.
**Unless your “service” is actually simply participating in a sort of group tomfoolery on a “talent” stage at a large, quite silly convention, in which case your service hours are entirely meaningless.
Charity should be an act where a person or group of people contribute something to help others. It can be donations or time. The true reward for charity should be the good feeling that one gets knowing that they've helped someone.
ReplyDeleteThat being said how do we teach future generations to be charitable? Should we reward them or force them to do something kind or just lead by example? Honestly I believe there is no one right answer. In fact I believe that to really hit home there needs to be a combination of teaching.
Instead of rewarding with points or toys or whatever, sometimes a compliment like "You just helped someone in need, good job!" is the best reward.
Now when it comes to forcing youth to do charitable acts, I believe that it may backfire unless you approach it very carefully. Act like the person has a choice whether to do it or not so they feel like it's their idea. If it's a little kid tell them that they are simply sharing. In other words force them without forcing them.
Children watch every move adults make so of course we want them to pick up good habits we have to do them ourselves. Make it a point to donate change to the bell ringers, canned goods to those in need, or even pet supplies to a shelter. Without them knowing it, you have then set them up to be a charitable person as well as yourself.
As for the giving of points or extra credit being moral, I believe that we're on the right track, but we need to work a bit harder.
I think that offering an incentive for be charitable is ethical only if you have truly good intentions. If every time you have a problem you immediately assume you can give something to someone and your problem should be resolved then you’re wrong and that not ethical plus that not charity that’s called extortion.
ReplyDeleteGiving to charity or doing a charitable act is a great thing to do; it is not something you do to benefit yourself you should only do it to be helping the person or group that you are giving to. To support them and there cause or need. Now, that being said if there is a small incentive like extra points or an exemption pass to something then that is fine. Because it does not cost anything and does not really encourage you to give all the time just for your benefit. Because you can only give so many extra points or exemption passes.
I think that if you have good intentions with your donation and you receive a small incentive for your donation that is perfectly ok as long as are truly wanting to help.
Drew Dearborn
Around the age of entering middle school, students usually don't receive supply
ReplyDeletelists. What can teachers do to get the basic necessities they need? An easy way
out of course is to ask the students to bring the supplies by bribing them with
a good grade for it. In my opinion this is not the right thing to do and it's
not always fair when it comes to having the extra money to go out and "buy a
better grade". In a students mind we think "oh darn I forgot to do my homework
last night, I'll just bring a box of tissues to make up for it." Are we really
learning anything from that? Except that you are forgetful.
As a student I have done this before in my middle school years, but looking back
I was literally buying a good grade for myself. This idea of bringing in items
for an alternative extra credit grade was for the slackers, kids who didn't want
do their work. Not for the good of the class but for the better of their
personal grade, making it look like they did the work and earned that grade.
Brooke N. Spaulding
When you truly think about it what is a charitable donation. I personally think it's anything that is helping someone else. In the circumstance of donating supplies, we are helping someone so wouldn't it be a charitable donation. We just happen to get a generous donation of our grade boosted for being generous.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I love the idea of stuff for extra credit. From personal experience I know it helps because even though I work my butt off all day and still fail a test every now and then, it helps when you gain a little boost when that test counts for a huge chunk of your grade. But I do understand that it is pretty much using money to boost our grade because we are buying things to get said extra credit. But in reality who else is going to buy the supplies, forget teachers they get paid barely anything and forget about school funding were broke.
Don't get me wrong, I believe they could come up with a better idea, such as more fundraisers, or community donations, but truly who has the spare money to help. But I do have to agree that we have to draw the line somewhere because it would be unfair for someone who works there butt off to have the same grade as someone who just got the grade for buying germ-x and Kleenex.
This opportunity can be both rewarding and contradicting because we get the reward of having a little slack room for when we do slip up but yet it’s contradicting because though we are doing a good deed and donating, we are only doing it to help ourselves. Therefore even though I love the idea of, I think most do because we like helping ourselves more than helping others.
Ashton Chaney
Charity is hard to come by these days. How many of us have truly done something out of the goodness of our hearts? Not for extra credit, not for a club, not for a sport, not our job, just because it was the nice thing to do? I feel like too many of us think that we don’t have the time for it. “I would, but I can’t because of _____.” The fact that parents are the ones arguing this is even more upsetting. What do you call chores and an allowance. Kids don’t clean their rooms because they want to help out their parents, they do it because their parents give them money. It’s bribery, it’s the same thing as bringing in supplies for extra credit. America doesn’t teach “charity” any more, or even “kindness”. If you see a homeless person on the side of the street would you give them a dollar or walk by think they would probably use it for drugs anyway. Our gut instinct is to help them but we fight it because we don’t think it will go to good use. We fight it because we don’t see any benefit for us. Since when did we go by the pirate code: “All who fall behind, are left behind?” (Pirates of the Caribbean) We never know if it’s gonna be us who fall behind, after all this is America where it is every man for himself and you can go from rags to riches or riches to rags.
ReplyDeleteSorry for such a cynical post, generally I try to be positive, but this is such a negative topic. I am very patriotic I just hate what we have become.
Dove DeNigris
I completely agree with the notion that a charitable deed that has been done is a charitable deed nonetheless, despite whether it had or lacked an incentive.
ReplyDeleteI constantly read posts on this blog and all around the internet about how broken society is. Then, when an issue such as this comes along, one that has positive effects for those involved, people jump all over it and attack it for not being 100% ethically right. It upsets me, as people refuse to be satisfied with any solution to a problem. Everything has an ulterior motive, and even charity is no different.
Honestly, I don't see how anything harmful can come from this idea of incentivizing charitable works. For one, the deed is still being done. Someone is still benefiting from the act of charity, even if it was motivated by one's own self-interest. And who knows; without that incentive, a hungry man may not have received the sustenance they need to survive, an elderly adult may not have received meaningful company, etc.
In the end, incentivizing charity may have a positive effect. Perhaps one person actually enjoys the feeling they get from helping others, and continue to do charitable deeds, which they arguably may not have done without what some of you are calling "bribery". If it helps just one person, then isn't it all worth it?
Cam Newton
I believe that once you throw in an incentive for a charitable act it becomes a tradeoff. Charity should be given without needing a reward, while a trade is when you give something to get something in return. Charity should be a selfless act where you just do it for the betterment of others not needing anything in return. If you expect something in return it is no longer a selfless act, you are more than likely going to do it to get your reward to better yourself.
ReplyDeleteConner Nelson
I think that if we all were going to be honest with ourselves, we would say that most of us have brought in school supplies for our teachers for extra credit. At least I know I have.
ReplyDeleteIs this ethically wrong? Absolutely.
Is it really our fault that we would bring the supplies in, when we had done it our whole lives because that's what our teachers had taught us to do? In my opinion, no.
Therefore, should we trust the people standing up in front of us everyday at school for the past 11 years, and their con-artist ways by taking supplies from children? Probably not...
Arising the question I have, is BETA club at school doing the same thing we are talking about right now? As a proud member of BETA, we are in this club for our hard work at school and leadership in our community. But, we are required to get a certain amount of community service hours each semester, and every 30 minutes of service is 1 BETA point. In my opinion, if we weren't getting a "point" for this community service, most of us wouldn't worry about serving the community, and we are supposed to be the "leaders" of our school. What message are we being sent, and what message are we sending to our school and future students?
I don't think the question we need to answer for this blog needs to be "Extra credit for boxes of Kleenex? Points for Pens? What are the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts?" instead it needs to be: "What is true charity?"
-Amber Booth
In my opinion, it is morally wrong for a student to bring in Kleenexes or varying supplies just to get a better grade. I feel that this is not a selfless act, it is a selfish act. Not only for the student who is being greedy but also for the teacher is pretty much just bribing his or her students so that he/she can benefit. Yes, teachers may say that the supplies that are brought in will benefit the whole class but it is mainly benefiting the teacher because they’re not taking the responsibility of going to the store and buying the Kleenexes or pens or markers and spend their money.
ReplyDeleteIn our schools, when we are told that if we bring in something we will get extra credit we are basically being taught that for everything we give in life we will be rewarded in return. Students are being led awry especially considering how schools and teachers are supposed to be teaching the students about how to survive in life.
In many of my classes throughout the years my teachers offered extra credit, or candy or some type of incentive as long as we brought in supplies for the class. These offers have diminished since I have been in high school so when I realized that I wasn’t benefitting from the things I did I started to not do anything for anyone else because I wasn’t benefitting. I then joined FCCLA and I realized that charity won’t benefit you if you’re looking for physical things, you do it to make other people who aren’t as privileged feel better. People (teachers and schools) need to realize that it is morally wrong for them to offer incentives for students bringing in supplies and instead teach that charity sould be done as a selfless act.
Taylor Moreland
When I hear "charitable acts", I obviously think of community service, which is something I have become very passionate about this past year. I am completely opposed to undeserved extra credit by basically BUYING your grades by bringing in some supply. That's not a charitable act in any form, you're supplying a need to your teacher, and you're getting what you want in return. You don't earn it, you buy it and that is not how an educational America should function.
ReplyDeleteThinking outside of just extra credit and Beta "points", I think of rewards I have gotten for service. Before the summer of 2013, I fundraised over $500 for the KY YMCA Youth Association and completed over 50 hours of VOLUNTARY community service. The fundraising, the hours, each a form of service to my community and a program I am deeply passionate about. But in this scenario, I was given a reward for my efforts. I was rewarded with a week long service trip, yes, more community service was my reward and it was the most impactful and life-changing experience of my life. There is nothing more spiritually rewarding than getting to serve others with 28 other high school students. This incentive for service is one that is most definitely ethical and this reward wasn't a typical reward. I didn't get a plaque, extra credit, Medal of Honor, a feature article. I got to serve others as a reward for serving others.
What I'm trying to say with this story is that there are beneficial ways to celebrate charitable acts without making it just an exchange of giving what you want to get what you want.
Morgan Gay
I don’t think that receiving a small reward for a charitable act is unethical. Often times a foundation may offer you a reward like a t-shirt that you’re never going to wear or at school you get a point or two on your grade (that won’t raise it much) but ultimately whatever you’re donating is going to help someone. If you take the ASPCA for example, if you donate X number of dollars you’ll get a free t-shirt and a bracelet. Why would you donate if you didn’t think it was a worthy cause? I think the rewards you get for donating are for two things. 1. To encourage you to donate and 2. Raise awareness with that t-shirt you got so others will donate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are those people who will donate to charities only to tell everyone how much they donated and how much of a good person they are. That IS unethical. But at the same time, that large amount of money they’re bragging about is still going to a worthy cause they just didn’t have good intentions when donating.
-Courtnie Carr
As a high school student, I absolutely think it is okay to give out extra credit in any way the teacher wants to give it out, that is their choice. After all they are the ones with the diplomas on the wall. If they want to give you an extra point for bringing in a box of Kleenex, then alright, so be it. Think about a hardworking student who is one point away from making that 'A' they so desperately want... By the teacher allowing students to gain an extra few points by bringing in whatever object they are needing, its a win-win situation. I was once in this situation. I was one point away from having straight A's. Thankfully, I had an easy way to gain that one point in order to make those straight A's happen. My teacher was so generous to give me a wonderful break like that. Perhaps by the time I get to college, I will be wishing this extra credit deal existed, but I know college professors more than likely do not work that way. Oh well, oh well. We all know high school is easier than college, that's how it always has been and that's how it always will be. For those of you who are making this out to be a huge issue, I just do not see the harm in students having the opportunity to gain a point or two in a certain class by bringing in whatever the teacher is needing. We should be smart enough to take advantage of these opportunities, and we should also be wise enough to realize we will not always be rewarded for every time we do a good deed.
ReplyDelete-Samantha Roberts
There is nothing wrong with the idea of exchanging donations for grades, but it is really hard to put it into practice with out someone thinking it is wrong. The people that offer rewards for charitable acts are not doing it just to increase the amount of money they make. That may be part of the reason, but they are also doing it to bring more attention to their cause. Most people would probably donate anyways, but there always those few people that are so selfish that they have to have a reward in order to do the right thing. I like the example Courtnie Carr used, would you still donate to ASPCA even if they didn't give you a free t-shirt? I would, but I'm sure that some people would reconsider. But in the end this t-shirt you got as a "reward" helps you and the ASPCA, you get a t-shirt and the ASPCA gets advertising that may get them that donation that helps to save one more puppy's life. And that's what makes it okay. So to all those people that call this morally unethical so what if people don't donate for the right reason? They are still doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteEmily Crowe
All Charitable acts offer incentives, No one can be selfless, and Everyone is naturally selfish.
ReplyDeleteThe charitable acts described in the blog prompt offer points. If the points are taken away. Less people will bring in items. The others that still bring in items get no reward, so why do they do it? Those people still get a reward, it's just less noticeable.
Some of them might do it to make themselves look good. Others might do it because our society says it's good to give, and so they do it just to fit in and not get rejected. Then the last bit simply do it because they get a “good” feeling from it. Either way, all of these people who give without the obvious incentives still have incentives and get rewards from what they do.
Now about the whole problem with giving points for items and such. This doesn't matter. It's like setting a house on fire, watching it burn, and then asking why your door is now a pile of ash.
The whole public education system is broken. Teachers only use points because they have to keep up with 100+ students. A teacher should only be keeping up with maybe 1-3 students. It should be a master and apprentice relationship. The master would know exactly what the apprentices are capable of doing because there's only a handful of them. The two groups would also care deeply about their trade and in result would openly talk all the time about progress and their training.
Even if the system was fixed, the points still wouldn't matter because those that truly care about what they're learning will learn regardless of some stupid value you assign them called a “grade”.
--Coleman Williams
I could argue this either way. I believe that more students would donate if they were given an incentive but also that students should want to give to charity because they want to and not because they get something out of it. this happens all the time in schools. I've seen this happen with a schools fundraiser and in our classes.
ReplyDeleteIn our school we have fundraisers such as canned food drives. Some teachers will bribe their students with extra credit if they bring in a certain amount of cans or just if they bring in any at all. Not only are the teachers bribing their students, the fundraiser organizers tend to bribe us. You hear them say over the announcements that the class with the most cans will win something. that seems to make students want to give more so then more food would go to that charity.
In our own classrooms teachers bribe students. With teachers having multiple classes a day, supplies go by quickly. Especially tissues during flu and allergy season. I understand it isn't the teachers responsibility to supply those things for us so they ask students to bring in more supplies throughout the year. Most kids do not think of it as a big deal so they just don't do it. As time goes by, the teacher just wants kids to bring in things so they go to giving students incentives. I personally have done this before so that I could get homework passes. This I don't particularly see as doing something wrong because not only am I helping others, I am helping myself in a way. I could just bring in tissues to help others just for the sake of helping others but being given a prize for it seems to make it more important.
I think giving incentives are wrong but in all honesty, if it helps raise more for charities, it is a god idea. We want to help charities and by being exposed to it in schools, it shows us how easy it is to help out and could inspire students to do more community service or participate in helping charities. Even though they don't receive a gift for helping, some will understand that it is better to give and know you are doing something good and helping others who aren't as blessed as others.
~Ashleigh Johnson~
I can definitely understand both sides of this argument. In this example, I can see how offering extra credit for supplies in the classroom could spur a moral debate between parents who truly feel that it is wrong for their children to be taught that being rewarded for charity is right, and at school of all places. However, after thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that this is not as big of a deal as some of us may think.
ReplyDeleteIf you really think about, you get rewarded for any and all charity you do, whether it's extra credit or service points or a tax deduction or just simply feeling good about yourself for what you've done. Yes, self-satisfaction is definitely its own reward. Many people do only do charity strictly out of the goodness of their heart- which brings them happiness, which in itself is rewarding. Feeling good isn't the same as earning some other outside incentive, but it still acts as any other incentive would, which is to motivate you to do something for the good of our community.
In a perfect world, the only motivation we'd need to do any charitable act would be the rewarding feeling we get. We wouldn't need to be offered any other rewards to make the idea of charity more appealing to us. But we are human, and humans are flawed. Doing selfless acts doesn't always come easily to some people.
I think it's completely up to the discretion of the teacher (or company or club) whether or not they want to offer small rewards for doing good deeds. For some people, that's the push they need to do something good. For others who really feel that it's wrong, especially regarding the example about extra credit, nothing is stopping them from just not accepting a reward. They are still free to bring in items to their teacher and then politely decline the optional extra credit offered to them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Who knows? It may set an example for other kids in the classroom.
Diana Rudic
I would like to believe that the original idea to provide incentives for ‘charitable acts’ was to train children to create a habit for charity work, and eventually not need the reward. The plan stared to fall apart when children got older and no one decided to gradually take away the incentives, then the incentive became a requirement for any action that didn’t bring immediate compensation to themselves.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don’t object to extra credit for charitable acts, as long as it’s for small kids and the teacher is trying to get the child interested in community work. When kids turn in tissues and dry erase markers for extra credit, they feel way more awesome when they realize that someone else is using what they turned in, and they want to do it again. They will never remember that extra credit after the two seconds it was mentioned. This feeling makes them want to do donate more and have what they donated serve a purpose.
Older kids and teens, on the other hand, if they have lived their whole life being conditioned to get something and no one helps them come to the realization that you should want to do it out of the goodness of their heart, are a different story. By the time you are in middle school, the student shouldn’t need to get a reward for going to Walmart and getting their parents to buy something for a teacher they see for an hour a day. I think that charity is about sacrificing something of yours, whether it be time or money or whatever to make a difference to someone else. You shouldn’t expect to get something in return.
I feel like providing rewards for charity completely undermines the entire idea of charity, and turns it into a selfish act to get something you want, without even caring about the other people you are affecting. I think if people redefined charity to what it truly is, people wouldn’t need extra credit to give canned goods to families in need for thanksgiving, to donate to the food pantry or to any other organization.
Erin Chapman
Extra credit opportunities have arisen multiple times in my school life. I have seen extra credit help many of my friends pass classes, but is this really ethical in the way that we let students blow off their school year, and at the end pass by extra credit? What is this teaching us about life? That we can screw off and manage to get by in the real world?
ReplyDeleteNow I know that there are some cases in which extra credit should be allowed, for example, I know of a friend who usually struggles in classes, but he is a hell of a worker. He works so hard, but fails to keep his grades high. People like this, who actually show effort, deserve the opportunity of extra credit. If he is working so hard to manage his grades he should get a chance, unlike people who slack off the whole year and gain extra credit to pass.
I would also like to say that people think of charity so much different than what is intended. People are supposed to enjoy helping people and love the feeling it gives them. Our society has changed this view in to what we think charity is getting rewarded for our charitable actions instead of just doing charity for the rewarding feeling it gives you. I used to feel this same way as my mom used to always make me volunteer to help with things around church. It just so happens that after volunteering a dance that we set up at our church for special needs adults that I found what charity really is. It just honestly made me feel so good doing things for people who are less fortunate than I am. In my opinion, that is true charity.
To wrap it all up, society has changed the way we view charity. Also, extra credit is sometimes teaching people wrong, but is a blessing for those who deserve it. I know that I spoke of two different topics, but I felt as if i should voice my opinion on both.
- Dallas Taylor
Charity is defined, in part, as "the act of giving money, food, or other kinds of help to people who are poor, sick, etc." no where in Websters definition does it indicate that the giver is to receive anything in return. Therefor I disagree in most aspects with individuals offering incentives in order to get others to participate in charity drives.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel its fair to the students that cant afford to participate in the charity drives. For example, there are students who just so happen to get their shoes, clothing, food ect. from charities, but because they cant participate they don't receive extra credit points. It is wrong to pin-point out students in the classroom, asking each individual to give.
However, I do believe if a school is doing an act for charity, all the classrooms that participated should be rewarded with something. That way no student is left out and each classroom typically has a fair chance.
Lauren Knarr
I agree with Darby’s blog post. I believe that it is okay to receive extra credit when giving donations. You are being nice and helping someone, and the extra credit you receive is helping you. I feel like it’s a win-win situation; both parties are benefiting.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the fact that you have to work hard in class by doing your homework, studying hard for tests and showing up to class every day. It’s not wrong to receive extra credit for extra credit because you’re not just going to receive an A in the class for nothing. You have to work hard yourself to keep a high grade. Extra credit just gives your grade a little bump and everyone deserves a little bump.
Students aren’t being ethical though. Do teachers really expect their students to buy them school supplies without a reward of some sort? No, majority of teenagers are selfish. By offering a reward, students would actually participate in donating goods to the classroom. I think of it as a marketing strategy. Teachers are persuading their students to participate. That not ethical though because students should be helping others without any reward. In reality, that’s not going to happen.
Hannah Smith
I personally could argue that donating supplies at school for some extra credit is unethical, and unfair. The main reason I believe that this issue is unethical is because it is wrong to teach students like ourselves that you can basically pay your way into extra points on your grade. I also think that students could help in other ways like helping the school make money by holding a fundraiser to pay for the quote "needed" supplies. That way students would actually have to use their own time and effort to earn the points.
ReplyDeleteI also agree fully with what Lauren Knarr said her post about donating supplies for a grade is unfair. It is unfair because many students can not afford to by extra supplies for the classroom. So there for only students who had enough money to buy the donations would receive extra credit.
My family has four children in the franklin county public school system, and as much as my mom would love to donate supplies, she knows that it would be to expensive to buy the extra supplies, on top of all the other things you need for your classes for just yourselves.
So I do believe that donating supplies for extra credit, is unethical and unfair. I do think that a compromise could be made by have students help raise the money by working hands on to earn the extra credit points, and raise the money to buy the supplies for the classroom.
~ Taylor Gilbert (:
I don't think it is wrong, getting a small reward for bringing in something that the whole class uses everyday. Ad I think it is far that the teacher give out some points to the students/parents who pay money out of their own pockets for the well being of the class. But that does not mean that the student can bring in 10 boxes of tissues and get 10 points per box I mean that's a test grade. I think that the child should get maybe 5 point for bring something in because 5 point is a lot but it's not going to dramatically change the child's grade.
ReplyDeleteThere are some cases though, where I think it is wrong to give extra credit. Like giving a student a Word Search or a Coloring Sheet and them getting extra credit for that is wrong. It is doing nothing for the well being if the class at all. Also getting extra credit for copying definitions that you should already know is not okay. I just think extra credit it okay if it is helping the whole class and not just the student.
-Christina Wray
feel very split on this topic. In one way I feel that extra credit for Kleenex is basically bribing teachers which is wrong. But at the same time it can help both parties.
ReplyDeleteI seem to lean more to the idea that it helps (partly because I will take extra credit if I don't have to actually work for it in class) but it should be something that is regulated. If you are failing a class and bring in 10 bags of school supplies the teacher might be able to bump you to a D. Even then I think your grade would have to be close and it only get bumped a little. I just feel that it shouldn't be put to a B or something ridiculous like that or if you have a B and want to get an A but forgot your blog posts then it could be something that could bring you up.
Overall I think it is fine just as long as it is not abused.
Dillon Smith
"The end justifies the means."
ReplyDeleteI would like to believe this age old dilemma is what those who set up incentives for charitable acts have running though their mind. The idea that bad or immoral methods can be used as long as something good is accomplished by using them. However, should this phrase really be acceptable when applied to service? From the federal government to our own school constantly providing incentives for charitable acts, it seems as though it is acceptable, but by definition an act of charity is providing something for someone in need without personal gain. It is quite contradicting of the term when providing for someone in need is only to land an incentive.
Since I have been in high school, I have noticed that higher level classes, including most honors and AP classes do not provide incentives when involving charitable acts. Bringing in spare change for the March of Dimes will not help to boost your grade: want to boost your grade? How about reading a couple of passages and answering a few comprehension questions, if you're lucky that will gain you a few points. In these classes, I believe this structure of incentives for charitable acts is inadvertently teaching us a morally correct lesson as students. Honors and AP classes hold us to a higher academic standard. In doing so they also hold us to a higher moral stand. As we grow older, we should value the opportunity of participating in acts of charity not for what we will receive extrinsically, but for what we gain intrinsically by providing something for someone in need.
Grace Higgs
Charity overall is a good thing, no matter which angle you look at it people in need are benefitting from it. Even if someone is just doing it to get a better grade someone in need is still getting what they need from it.
ReplyDeleteIt does undermine the whole learning to be selfless and giving to those that don't have as much as you but even though the intentions may not be pure but the result is the same. It is somewhat human nature to expect something out of what we put money or hard work into. todays society doesn't help much on that front its all about the results, i.e. test results, a finished product, and so on and so forth. I think we do need to learn to be more selfless like Mother Teresa and not expect something out of it at all.
So as to the incentives part, everything is good in moderation. I think teachers should offer incentives for charity work because it helps those in need in the community, but it shouldn't be enough to make it unfair for other students that don't. It should only be enough to bring up a grade right on the borderline of going to the next letter grade. that way its not fair but kids do get something for their efforts.
Admiral General Jacob "Aladeen" Silvernail
think if you can get extra credit for a box of tissues your teacher is plan stupid. You are basically buying your way through school. I’m not sure about you all but I grew up being taught to earn what I get in life, and by buying extra credit, it is not working for anything but stupidity. And where is stupidity going to get you? No where. How far do you think you will get if you BUY your way through school? Sure wont get you far from a grill at Wendy’s.
ReplyDeleteYes I understand some of us need extra credit, but seriously, stop being lazy! Get up off your butt, put the phone down and do something! Bringing in pens, tissues, germ-X, should be out of the goodness of your heart not so that if you fail a test you can still hold up an A. (im pretty sure if you ask your teacher they will help you get that A on your own.)
I also believe that this is part of the downfall of our great nation. We just keep letting people slid by without working for anything until they get to high school and college. Where things DO SEEM TO MATTER. And doing so kids drop out and give up. You can give someone a helping hand, just be smart about it.
_Jennifer Lynn White (seriously get off your butt!)
This is a very tricky topic, and purely depends on the type of person. I think that the teachers should go for it and give a bonus point for the charity that you bring in, just due to the fact that if they didn't give a reason for someone to bring in a box of Kleenex or a bottle of hand sanitizer, they would never have anything in their classroom.
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying a bonus point is fine for the charity, of course. If a person got five bonus points for bringing in a box of Kleenex, while someone who did twenty questions from the book or spent five hours writing an essay and only received two, that would be completely unfair.
Like Destiny Hyatt had said before me, those who are not as fortunate with money will not have an equal amount of opportunity to get extra credit by bringing in different things that teachers ask for, so they will have to rely on working hard to earn bonus points while others could just bring in some hand sanitizer to gain just the same amount.
I'm all for gaining extra credit if teachers don't go all out and give more than one point, even if I'm not doing so well in that particular class.
Aurora Strider
I would have to say that offering incentives for extra credit is morally wrong because it is simply not teaching us anything about how the real world is going to be. Later on in life, you are not going to be able to provide a box of tissues for extra pay in your job. Obviously if the opportunity is given to me in a class for extra credit, I am going to take it because who wouldn't want to bump their grade up a few extra points? Even though I would do extra credit for providing incentives, I still don't think it is the right thing to be teaching kids around the world to do. As I've progressed through high school, I have noticed that there are starting to be very little opportunities for these types of extra credit which is a very good thing done by teachers. If you want to have a good grade in a particular class, you should pay attention and do your work. You shouldn't have to rely on things like extra credit to push your grade up when you are slacking off. Be responsible for yourself. like I said, you aren't going to get these sorts of things handed to you down the road so be prepared.
ReplyDelete-Grayson Arnold
Charity is an act volunteered by you out of the goodness of your heart and not for ulterior motives. I feel in schools when you reward students for donations or charity it’s not something you did for the better, it’s something you did for you.
ReplyDeleteA certain charity that I hold close to my heart is Relay for Life which is a charity that honors cancer patients, survivors, and keeps in memory those who have died from it. From personal experience with this charity I’ve realized that it’s not what you give, it’s how you give it. I’d rather have a person donate anonymously than donate and expect publicity and reward from it. Community and volunteer service go hand in hand with charity. As a member of the dance team we are required to participate in team community service activities such as Christmas gift wrapping and working at the Special Olympics Christmas Ball. Both of these activities that we participate in are not only fun but make us feel as if we've made a difference in the community.
I think it overall it does morally send a wrong message students. Some may say it’s better to give some than none, although this may be true if your intentions aren’t right then it does no good for anyone.
Lexie Richardson (:
Is it morally right to offer incentives for charitable acts? Every charitable act is not 100 percent selfless. No matter what the action is, you always receive something in return, whether it is extra credit or a feeling that you did something good out of the kindness of your heart. I personally think there is no problem with offering incentives to reach a goal. Should our motives to do good matter? At the end of the day it is not a teacher’s responsibility to determine if a student has an ulterior motive to giving. As always, teachers can only encourage positive behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem that I see arising from offering incentives for charitable acts is unfairness due to financial backgrounds. An elementary student that comes from a struggling family may not have any extra money to spend on tissue boxes. A family living paycheck to paycheck may not be able to provide their child with cans for a food drive. This creates a disadvantage for underprivileged children.
-Madison Wallace
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't feel acts of charity should be rewarded with extra credit. It is essentially like paying for better grades. I feel grades should be earned and not gained through payment. Also, charity isn't typically something that is rewarded. When you give something to say the Salvation Army, you don't get anything in return (other than the good feeling that comes from helping those in need). Charity should be something done out of the goodness of your heart, not for extra points in school.
ReplyDelete-Evan Hatter
Everyone reading this blog post is in an AP class and knows exactly how much work it takes to maintain a good grade in higher level courses. So think about this, is it fair for people to be allowed to get the same grade as you, just by buying a box of kleenexes? My answer is no. I have spent countless hours of doing homework and studying for exams just to maintain a 4.0 GPA and for students to be allowed to bring a box of kleenexes to receive the same grade as me is totally not fair.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree that some people are not great test takers and may need a few extra points here and there, they should not be able to get those points by bringing in supplies. They should have to work twice as hard since they obviously didn't work hard enough the first time around. Not only is it not fair, it is cutting kids short of their education. To pass a class you need to know the content, not know how to buy
supplies.
Abigale Wilson :)
In my opinion, bringing in tissue boxes and germ-x are helpful but they’re not charitable acts and even if they were, this usually isn’t the reason students bring them in. They bring them in for the extra-credit, which is basically being bribed by the teacher if you choose to look at it like that. While thinking about my argument for this post I honestly didn’t feel strongly about it so I just looked at the positives and negatives and decided the negatives outweigh the positives. First, when you buy these supplies, it’s usually your parents’ money being spent. You may not even be going to the store with them when they buy it. Heaven forbid you make an effort for extra points that are specifically for going “above and beyond”. Secondly, with that said, money is being spent to get you some points. I know it doesn’t make much of a difference to your overall grade, but you’re buying your grade.
ReplyDeleteLastly, being a good student’s also about exhibiting the different qualities you possess and showing how well-rounded you are as an individual. This is why if you do something extra-credit-worthy, you shouldn’t be expecting to receive it. Yes, you are donating to the class and the teacher and providing for them all but to truly know if someone is doing it out of the kindness of their heart or not, you have to read their mind and because that’s still not scientifically possible at the moment, it should be eliminated and replaced with a system that provides points to those not asking for them.
- Emilee Agee
Extra credit for bringing things in for the teacher is a complicated subject to talk about for a student. On one side you should get the grade you deserve not one for bribing the teacher. But, on the other hand, that 4 or 5 points can be the difference between an A or a B and therefor a scholarship or taking out a loan that you'll be paying off until you're 40.
ReplyDeleteIt just comes down to the teacher. If they want to used dry erase markers or have a box of tissues in their room then they shouldn't be expected to pay for that. But they don't really need them. With technology advancing markers and white boards are becoming less and less used. And with the fear of spreading an illness being one of everyone's top concerns, then children are encouraged to just stay at home if they have the sniffles.
Extra credit, and lots of it, also puts students into a special mind set. The mind set where if they don't do an assignment then they are able to just bring in a few boxes of tissues or a pack of markers and still have the same grade as the child who spent 3 hours on the homework. So i think extra credit is a bad thing. Not just for bringing things in, just in general.
Shawn Pope
In many classes in elementary school, we were asked to bring in necessities for te classroom, not given incentive. But now it seems in high school that teachers are giving away extra credit like it's nothing. As Davis said, I've always had to work to get my extra credit, and I feel it's necessary to work hard for extra support. I feel like yeah it's okay sometimes if teachers honestly need the items for the classroom, but that extra credit should be given to a student for working hard and having dedication to a subject. In my AP English class, extra credit is given for some simple assignments that require though, such as extra blogposts, more than x amount of times you speak in a Socratic seminar, and even doing rhetorical analysis questions on essays from our textbook. Whereas in my pre calculus class, extra credit is given for bringing tissues in to class.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the way some teachers go about their extra credit. Some classes you must work hard and put a lot of thought into an assignment while in others you just have to get up and grab a few boxes of this and a few packages of that. We need to rethink our morals and then we can consider giving extra credit to students.
Evan Montgomery
The way I see it, offering incentives such as extra credit for charitable acts is absolutely harmless. It just depends how the teacher gives it, I mean no three boxes of tissues should bring an F up to a B. (Can I meet the teacher who has this mindset please?) But maybe if the student is two points away from an A, this could be the advantage. Also I doubt as a teacher, they would want to go out Wal-Mart every general supply for your class so it's like a win win situation.
ReplyDeleteLike everything else, it also has a negative side. It's not fair to students that their families don't have that extra money to throw out for a charitable act to raise their grade by a point or two. They don't get the same opportunity to do that, but then again it's a choice if you want to or not.
Ling Lo
I believe that it is completely unethical to get rewards for donation. It gives off the idea that you will always get something for a charitable act. I think that you should give just for the sake of giving, and you take away from the meaning of just being nice. Donation just for the reward is just selfish, and is completely unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteThis act is most prevalent in schools, which I find rather sad. Not only do kids get the wrong idea of what being charitable is, but some kids just buy their grades. I know in most of my classes, students get either extra credit or homework passes for bringing in items like tissues, germ-x, and other needed supplies. This does help teachers with cost, but when there are students having their grades go up a whole letter grade just because they bring in more than others, they are just cheating themselves. It is unfair for one student to get an A for working hard and earning their grade, while another student gets an A for slacking off, then getting extra credit because mommy and daddy got mad about their C, and bought their kid twenty of boxes of tissues.
The act of getting for giving should be stopped because you aren’t being charitable if you are only giving for your own selfish need.
Hannah Webber
I find this to be completely outrageous and ridiculous. However, it's necessary. Providing incentives goes charity shouldn't be the motivation for people to participate in things like community service, however, that's what has become of the many prestigious club, such as Beta, that are greatly involved in community service. Students involved in these clubs usually only participate in community service to maintain membership, not to mention their service is usually minimal. If there wasn't an incentive, unfortunately, nothing would get done. People need to learn the importance of giving back to those who aren't as fortunate as us. (As I write this, I feel more and more like a hypocrite). It's an important value to have.
ReplyDeleteEvery one of us has been presented a situation were we are called upon to participate in community service. I can recall in middle school when we were collecting box tops for the schools. For x amount of box tops be bring in, we get y amount of BRAVES points. I remember sitting at home, counting my box tops and calculating my rewards. I never once thought about the service I was doing for my school. All I had in mind was the incentive.
Charity is supposed to be an organization where people who are well off can selflessly help those who aren't as fortunate. It has turned into a "black market" of sorts, providing extra credit for a bottle of hand sanitizer, or membership in a club for a few pairs of old shoes. Unfortunately, this is what makes people give. They give to get. They provide a service and expect something in return. This thought process is morally wrong, but is rooted in everyone's brain. Incentives shouldn't have to be given, but they are necessary if anyone wants to get anything done.
-Chris Hughes
Honestly it kinda does sound unethical. Charity is giving something for nothing, not giving something in exchange for something else, that's called bartering. But I will not pretend I think poorly of getting extra credit for not having to do work. Because I am the first person to hand in that box of Kleenex. So although most of you all are writing about how "you should have to do work for extra credit and it's not fair", I will turn in my pack of pencils and call it a day.
ReplyDeleteEmily Evans
As many have said a good deed is a good deed, and the motivation shouldn't matter. And while I agree with that I don't think it's charity. I think that these ideas should be separate because an exchange of tissues for a few extra credit points, even though it's beneficial, is not the same as spending an hour, serving the homeless at the soup kitchen out of the goodness of you heart.
ReplyDeleteI believe that calling this exchange of donation and incentive a charitable act is where the mistake lies. We teach people that charity is done as a selfless act, a good deed simply because you can. Charity, as defined by dictionary.com, is generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless. So when we involve incentives we are also on the receiving end, it's no longer generously giving and it's no longer charitable.
-Courtney Woodyard
My response to this is very simple. I think it all reflects character. If you have to be bribed or rewarded for giving to charity, you are not a good person. Simple as that. Every time a pass the person at the store ringing a bell for the Salvation Army, I make sure to put money in the bucket. Do I get a reward for it? Physically, no... but I get the reward of feeling like a quality citizen and the pure joy of helping the community. If you aren't willing to give to the community unless you are rewarded, well think about what that says about your character...
ReplyDeleteCorey Rogers
@iAmCR10
I believe that in the world today people take the opportunity to bring things in that will make them feel better about themselves but also get them a better grade. I myself do the same thing, I will bring things in to get a better grade because nowadays teachers do not just hand out extra credit like they use to so kids are scared to fail. But I do not agree with that fact that it takes a grade to do something good for the world. I think the society should do more things for situations like this rather than having to do it for a grade. It's neither the school/teachers fault for this, society should have more fundraisers outside of school so teachers do not think we bring it in just to get a better grade, you do it because you care.
ReplyDelete-Mackenzee Sawyer
Charitable works that are required or for a reward are BOGUS. It is absolutely ridiculous to think that one can do something truly charitable if they have an ulterior motive. Seeing as this practice is so objectionable to me, I will try to explain it for you. Say, you are in a class of your choice. You love the teacher and the work is fun, but your grade is suffering. Now, the teacher has told your class that if you bring in school supplies to replenish her stash you will get extra credit. That sounds great, you can go to Walmart after school and pick up a few packs of pencils and a bottle of hand sanitizer for five bucks. That doesn't seem like much money, and it isn't, but there is an intrinsic problem with that situation. You are paying for your grade. But wouldn't that be just peachy if you could just hand off ten dollars to the teacher in every class for an A?
ReplyDeleteBy the very definition of charity, you must give something from yourself; wether that may be money, or time, or talent, you must make a sacrifice so that others can benefit. If in our situation, the teacher said to bring in school supplies and omitted the part about the extra credit, there wouldn't be nearly as many people bringing in pencils and tissues because charity has become a chore today. Also, there is the question of paying for your grade; it is foolish to offer a grade or even extra credit for something that you didn't academically earn. Not to mention that you will be denying yourself the opportunity to learn and become a more successful person. Things like that will prepare you for the time in your life where you can be truly and unquestionably charitable.
-Simon Holden
Concerning the example presented, I think giving extra credit for bringing in school supplies is not right. Grades should be a measure of how well you grasp the content taught and have nothing to do with bringing in classroom items. I realize that most times when extra credit is given for supplies or something similar, it’s not for a sizable increase in grade, but in my mind it still shouldn't have any effect. If you know you are going to be on the brink between two grades, you should put in extra time studying and getting help from your teacher, not relying on extra credit. Giving extra credit for content related material such as what is offered in this class is fine in my eyes, as long as the student is a hard worker. If I was in a situation where I wanted to bump up my grade, I would take advantage of any extra credit opportunities presented to me, even exchanging supplies for points. I guess that makes me a hypocrite, but everyone is a hypocrite in some regard.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I suppose I still view giving incentives (or rather expecting incentives) for charitable work as unethical, but it really shouldn't matter. If charitable work being done is helping anyone, then it is worth it. Whether you work at a soup kitchen for BETA points or you work at a soup kitchen solely based on the kindness of your heart, the end result is the same. So, while it is ethically better to do something without expecting an incentive, if giving an incentive is required to increase the amount of charitable acts in the community, incentives should be continued to be given out. The more people that are helped, the better.
Ethan Aldridge
I feel that a donation, or something that is given to a charity (dictionary definition) should be something given by somebody or done by someone willingly. The idea of a donation is to give back to a charity because you want to, without getting an incentive for doing so.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with giving extra credit for donations of classroom supplies. This is because I believe that extra credit should be earned through dedication and hard work. No student should ever be given the opportunity to buy their grade for any class. You should be required to put in some extra effort academically to get extra points on academic scores.
I have been given opportunities for extra credit multiple times during my high school career. Although, they have always involved some sort of educational link to what we are learning at the time.
-Kali Whitaker
When you give something for a charity you usually don’t expect something in return and you do it out of the good of your heart because you know it is the right thing. I’m not saying that I don’t believe us as students should not get the opportunity to have extra credit I’m just saying we should have to work hard to earn the grade. Having students bring in stuff like pencils and Kleenexes for extra credit is just like letting them buy their grade, I believe that we should have to work for the grade by doing actual work, for example we could write an essay or take notes and answer questions about the lesson, etc. when we get older and move on in life we won’t be able to buy our way through life so in all reality it will just hurt them in the long run if teachers continue to give extra credit for the students who buy them stuff instead of making them work for the grade.
ReplyDelete**Miranda Gunn
If a teacher said I will give you extra credit if you bring in... I would totally do it. I realize that you shouldn't expect rewards for good deeds but if this encourages good deeds, then what's so wrong with that. I volunteer because my parents encourage me to, some kids just don't have that. I believe that you should have to work for what you get, like grades. I think Beta and National Honors Society an other clubs to volunteer, yes we need points but we're teenagers, we need a little push toward positive activities instead of the negative.
ReplyDeleteRachel Blackwell
I think that giving incentives to do charitable acts is morally wrong. I know as I middle schooler I never really got it. "Oh, so I can have 20 braves points for a bottle of germx?" Didn't sound like a bad idea back then. But I also know that I never really understood the whole "charitable acts" thing. Up until freshman year if you asked me to bring in something for a food drive or angel tree i'd more than likely wouldn't do it. Because it never stuck out at the top of my list. I always had the intention of doing it I just forgot. But I NEVER forgot them when rewards were involved.
ReplyDeleteProvide rewards for doing something charitable tricks a kid into thinking that you do things nice for people to get something in return. As I've grown up I've realized it is more about how it makes you feel inside knowing that you helped someone in need. I think that is enough reward. Seeing someone not suffer.
- Makayla Hawkins
This is kind of short because I didn’t have much to say. Our grades are not the most important thing in the world. They don’t show how smart you are and they don’t show how good of a person you are, but I will say it keeps parents at bay. This may be a bit bias because I am all for extra credit, especially when all you have to do is ask your parents to by something they already pick up at the store every week. I can almost guarantee that a student would not turn down the opportunity to get extra credit and still bring in supplies. It may not be ethical because it totally defeats the purpose of a charitable act, but I will say it benefits both teachers and students. The world runs on incentives anyway. If teaching was an act of volunteering the US wouldn’t be ranked as number 17 in Education any more. I am just trying to be as real as possible.
ReplyDeleteOn YouTube there are a whole lot of videos about giving large amounts of money to the homeless and giving ridiculous tips to waiters and delivery guys and it all makes me wonder if they do it just to get subscribers. (You can watch and leave your own comment about whether you think it is charitable or not.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPMxFbnrTuQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4enUE8qt_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65z8p1YNhw
Tariq Onodu
It seems that everything we do is for a benefit. Many do service projects to get Beta points or to receive extra credit. I believe that most people, at least our age, normally only do charitable acts for a benefit to themselves. I am not saying that is the incentive for everybody. Some people just want to help a cause. But I doubt our community would be receiving as much charity if our students didn’t need Beta points or extra credit or community service to look good on a college resume.
ReplyDeleteIncentives are what get teenagers to help. It may not be what charitable acts or community service is supposed to be about, but that is what motivates us to serve our communities. Most of us are looking towards our future and college. I am applying for governs scholars for an example. Service work is beneficial for our application. It’s the difference between getting accepted and not. This is the same for college applications. We all want to be accepted and to get as many scholarships as we can. It seems all colleges and scholarship programs care about is what you look like on paper. Do you volunteer around your community? How about your church? Are you helping your state?
Teenagers are put under so much pressure. There are so many of us competing for the same scholarships. We do what we can to get ahead. Sometimes we have too much on our plate and don’t do well on a test, this is when that extra credit from bringing in a tissue box would help. Have you ever thought that the only reason most people help others, is to help themselves. I am not saying that is what I do, or that is what everyone does. I am just saying that this is a factor to why incentives for charitable acts work. They help you get the benefit you want.
Rachel Wallace
I believe that giving teachers a box of Kleenex in return for extra credit is absolutely absurd. What you’re doing when trade in some pencils for extra credit is paying a teacher to bump up your grade. Yes, I just went there and I hope those of you who do this regularly just realized how horribly immoral this is.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the few ways that I believe BETA gets something right. It is mandatory that any charitable activity you want to earn points for you may not get any other form of reward from doing that activity (extra credit, money, etc.). I know many of you will be quick to point out that I am one of those people who always bring in Kleenex and Germ X, but I purposefully give mine to the office or Ms. Fraley so they can be handed out accordingly.
Another quick example of something that we shouldn’t extra credit for: cleaning a teacher’s room. If you need extra credit so much that you stay after school to clean, you either in the wrong class or you might need to try just a little bit more. I hope that this post has influenced to quit being so immoral.
Todd “If you’re mad at me I’ll add you to the list!” Stetler
The act of giving rewards for charity is a very redundant thing to do. The point of donating to a charity is to help others that are in need and without. For example, if you hold open a door for an frail old lady, do you just hold your hand out demanding the greens? No you dont. Even if you making a living opening doors for people it is still considered very insolent and rude. So why would you expect doing a kind gesture that is your civic duty in the first place? Although I do agree that doing things out of the kindness of your heart for rewards I do think it has some good reasoning behind it. Think about it like this; why do people do good deeds? Is it out of the kindness of their heart? (Because you know everybody in this perfect world are basically saints and cuddle with pandas right?) No they do it for the praise they get from others and the self satisfaction they get from helping others. Don't you feel self entitled to a pat on the back after doing a good deed? And dont lie, I know I certainly do. But some people do not really care for frivolous, self-esteem boosters like this. So people thought 'Hey! What if, no what if I gave them some other reward than than just a high five? Wouldn't that truely motivate them?' So when you have fun raisers and such your goal is to accomplish good for others right? So what does it matter if it comes from bribery of extra credit? It is basically the same thing as when the attention seekers seek the kind words from others. So it doesn't really matter as long as the goal is accomplished. Sure it is morally wrong to do good deeds for a reward but it would be even more morally wrong to say 'No Im not going to give anything because that would just be wrong. Rant, rant, rant.' then not get anything accomplished at all. At least both parties would be getting something out of it.
ReplyDelete-The Musings of Sharon Hockensmith-
I do not believe that morality can be bought. Charity is a learned moral behavior and it is also something that you have to want to do. My mom has always said that expected behavior should not be rewarded, and I agree with her. She modeled the behavior that she expected from me. She gave me opportunities to serve others. But, most importantly, she taught me that there were other people in this world besides me. When children are taught this concept, they tend to find the value in doing things for others and are satisfied by the feeling of doing the right thing. Rewarding expected behavior sends the message that we are entitled and squashes instrinsic motivation.
ReplyDelete-Hannah Tice
When I think of a charitable act I think of doing some sort of community service to get nothing in return but the satisfaction of helping others. With this being said I think that to a certain extent exchanging donations for extra credit is okay. Charity should be a selfless act yes. But by offering extra credit to get more students to participate is a good thing. Otherwise not many students would help out. I think there should be a balance between this. Teachers should offer only so many extra credit points. For example, a student must bring in so much supplies to get extra credit points but the most extra credit points a student could get would be 10, even if they bring in more supplies than needed. This would help balance the charitable act with the extra credit opportunity.
ReplyDeleteWhitley Bardroff
As a high-school student I quickly take advantage of any extra credit opportunity that I can get. Most extra credit given requires time and dedication to get it finished. The extra credit given will also give me the benefit to understanding the content more thoroughly than I have before. I do not think it is right that students are given the opportunity to practically buy their grade for the class. Like many have said, your class grades are represented by your abilities of comprehending the subject not by your ability to spend as much money as possible on items for extra credit. Giving students this opportunity is basically telling them its fine to slack off in class as long as you have the money to buy it off.
ReplyDeleteI also believe by doing this students will slowly get into the habit of not trying as hard as they should. If they know they can get a good grade by turning in kleenexs what’s the point of even trying to teach a student? They won’t be giving their all in a class like they should be.
Heather Fry
In some instances, a positive return for charity is perfectly justified. Beta points, for instance, are not so much a reward as a meter. They do not reward us, but measure the amount we have given.
ReplyDeleteWhile honoring students with the shiny title “Beta Club Member” to put on their college applications like a “Good job!” sticker may seem like an unethical way of “paying” us for charity, the positives outweigh the negatives. On one hand, you have some kids are going to enter the workforce and realize that “Volunteered weekly at the soup kitchen” doesn't do diddly squat on a resume. They'll be angry and they might never do charity work again because they don't get an awed pat on the back. It was too late for those jerks anyway.
On the other hand, you have the kids who, through organizations like beta, and incentives like extra credit points ( which I think are an okay incentive- to a mild degree) got volunteering experience that built a habit for them and gave them skills which they will use to benefit their community the rest of their life.
Either way, this is a lot of kids who are volunteering at a sensitive age for a return of the metaphorical peanuts at most, and that's good for everyone from any angle.
My more important point is that a will to do charitable acts without compensation starts at a more finite and basic level than school incentives. It starts with saying “Bless you” to someone who might not even hear you, or picking up a pencil for a kid who weirds you out a little. (to everyone who has ever picked up a pencil for me despite how uncomfortable I make them, a hearty thank you!)
Tiny things like that.
Basically, if getting extra credit points for turning in tissue boxes deteriorates the foundations of your morals, you were already too far gone, kid.
Ugh I need sleep this post is kinda turds
goodnight
Samantha Hensley
Charity? Is anything given freely anymore? Of couse not, it's almost laughably to think that someone would give something for nothing. Where did morals go wrong? Students don't give supplies to teachers or turn in work ahead of time for nothing, so why would they be expected to do any different as an adult?
ReplyDeleteI beileve that students are given an option to recieve points and passes to improve their grades. Everybody does it. Morals have changed, not to drastic, but just enough that it's noticable. People donate to make themsleves feel better, not to make the
cause better. Chariable contrubutions that are tax decduable is one example.
I don't really care that people do this, because when you have a cause that you are passionate about you do anything to help that cause strive. Maybe it is against your morals. Maybe you also had a good charity drive that week. It all depends on your personal morals, and how you want to accomplish your goal. Fewer and fewer people are becoming leaders, if you want to go against the grain and accomplish something great, then don't let the responsibity slide and fall on someone else's shoulders. Stand and Deliver.
*Mikka*
I, personally, do not think that it is okay to do no work and get all the reward. I am a person who tries very hard when it comes to anything I do. If I spend three hours on an assignment and get an eighty- five and someone else turns in a homework pass because he brought in tissues last week and he gets a hundred, I do not find this fair at all. I will stand by the quote “With hard work comes great reward”.
ReplyDeleteI think that charitable acts are to be done out of the goodness of ones heart. If you bring in germ-x I don’t find this a charitable act that is worthy of anything. Now, something like spending all day helping at a children’s hospital just because you want to, to me, would be a charitable act. I think it all goes back to the whole utility of the situation. If you want some extra points you will bring in what the teacher asks, but if you do a real charitable act the only thing that you get out of it is the joy that comes from the help that you gave.
In high school I haven’t seen much of the donation for grade exchange, but I did witness this recently by one of my teachers. She is a very smart teacher, but I just don’t find her logic in doing this. I just don’t find that it’s fair to those of us who are truly doing their work and getting a true grade versus the pseudo grade that those who gave those donations are getting.
I guess it only benefits those of us who are doing the ethical thing.
●Caroline Cunningham●
This prompt raises some sensitive moral issues among those do-gooders who freely give charity and think others should do so but also know everything helps. It raises the question, is the end result worth being morally wrong? Though I can be swayed either way I think I would argue that the end result is worth it in this scenario.
ReplyDeleteLike Will said earlier, “those who receive the charity will likely never know the motives behind the contribution. Most likely, they will just be glad to receive the help or donation.” Yes it seems wrong that the dance team is required to work fundraisers and Beta Club require service hours but someone is still benefiting from the charitable act however self-serving it may have been.
Now the giving extra credit for a box of tissues is different. I get that teachers need supplies but honestly donating the box of tissues can barely be construed as a charitable act. Not going to lie, I know I’ve turned in a box of tissues or two in my high school and middle school career but I don’t think it’s right to give extra credit for it. I’m not even sure how would could consider the end result being greater than the morally issues surrounding it.
Harper Jones
When I think of someone turning in tissues for extra credit, I think of a black market deal, or an NFL team paying off refs. Maybe even a corrupt Politian buying his way into an election. It just isn’t morally right to me. While I may be guilty of doing this in middle school, I can really think about it now and see the wrongness in it. Sure, It is an easy way to get extra credit for students. But some students may not be able to do this for extra credit, making it unfair. Extra credit for anything of monetary value is basically selling points to a person. How is this fair?
ReplyDeleteAll credit, including extra credit, should be earned the way it is meant to be earned. Through assigning work and the students doing it, and getting graded on the quality and effort put into the work. This way, extra credit only helps the student with their education, and grade as well.
It is late, and I need sleep. But these are main ideas of what I would base an in depth answer on.
Parker Buckley
Sure it might be morally wrong for some people to get a prize for helping with a fundraiser or bringing a box of Kleenexes to class, but some people wouldn't even donate if they weren't receiving that prize. This especially applies to children and teenagers who may not have good moral reason to help out their fellow humans. Schools/clubs/organizations want to receive donations (or they really need them) and sometimes that is the only way to get people to help out.
ReplyDeleteI think that organizations like Bets club do a lot of good in requiring their members to do community service. Even if many people dread doing it, there will more than likely be a few people who realize how much good they are doing and how much they love doing it. for these reasons I see no harm in offering a little incentive for people to receive things for the donations they give or the good work they are doing.
~Katie Moore~
I honestly feel that there is a huge difference between performing a charitable act and giving a box of tissues for extra credit. I don't think it is morally wrong for students to provide a teacher with supplies for extra credit it is both benefiting the teacher and the student. A charitable act in my mind should not benefit you at all because that act should be selfless. Giving a teacher a box of tissues is not selfless because you get extra credit and the teachers gain something too. It is not a wrong thing to help out yourself and the teacher but I understand why people would think it is morally wrong for teachers to give extra credit to a student without that student actually "earning" it. If giving a box of tissues to the teacher stands as something that is so morally wrong then it wouldn't have been continually allowed for teachers to do. Students should already know the difference between what is morally right and what's not because the teachers and parents should have provided some leadership on that subject.
ReplyDeleteBailey Bishop
I completely agree that student's should already know the difference between what is morally right and what's not because it should have been brought to their attention by their teacher or parent(s).
Delete-Kendra Harris
Charitable donations
ReplyDeleteIt's only okay in certain situations to provide grades for donations, or extra credit for charitable acts. If it is needed I don't see the problem if it is for a needed situation such as food for the poor, or a blood drive. But what is hard to determine is the validity of each need, such as tissues. It's a courtesy for teachers to provide tissues and germ-X in a classroom. But isn't required by law. In my opinion teachers shouldn't have to pay for these materials themselves, but at the same time I don't believe students can purchase their grades. You can't buy everything in life, and even buying grades will only let you go so far in life.
MacKenzie Jones
Well it's 8:23.... On the day our blogs are due.... And it looks like procrastination has struck me again. I'll probably need some extra credit to make up for this grade, maybe I can bring in some tissue boxes!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness the idea of extra credit for materials in classrooms is a terrible one. Whoever thought of giving grades for goods was a lazy teacher and person.
The whole point of school is to learn, to improve, and to expand our knowledge. In school we earn grades for our work, as all of you know, and the concept of giving better grades for not doing work is seriously wrong in so many ways. It creates an unfair advantage for the students willing and able to bring in items. Let's face it, students with more money are more likely to bring in goods for their teacher, and this improves their grades over the students who are unable to bring in things. Grades are very very very important in getting scholarships, getting into college, and getting things done in life. Students who bring things in for teachers are only cheating the system and theirselves.
And to the teachers who offer these incentives, you are just as bad.
-Keenan Jones-
In my opinion, if you're bribing to get extra credit, ex: bringing in materials or even trying to give money, then your character and even you as a person are just bad overall. You shouldn't offer incentives for charitable acts because in my opinion it's wrong. It just makes you look like a bad person.
ReplyDeleteBut also, if you are just a charitable person and decide to give to a charity, not a bribe of any sort, then you are a generous person and care more than just about yourself. Such as John Wall, he signed an $80 million dollar contract for the Washington Wizards, and as soon as he signed his contract, he immediately donated 1 million dollars to charity. Giving to a charity could easily go good or bad
Ian Teasley
There are many clubs that require you to participate in community service in order to get to do fun things in the club. In Beta, for example, we are required to complete a certain number of service hours in order to be able to go to convention. When thinking about the ethics of in incentives for charitable things, I can look at it from two different sides: The student receiving the incentive or the person being helped.
ReplyDeleteAs a student, I don't find anything wrong with doing charitable things and being rewarded. The question is, do I do these things purely for the reward. Personally, no, but I can't say the same for others. What does it teach me? Point blank, I am being taught that when I do good things for other people I get a reward. For some, this may lead to greed and helping for the wrong reason. We should be taught to help wholeheartedly, purely because we want to help others or make the community better, not for a reward.
As the person being helped, I like hearing that I only have help because others get something out of it. Maybe that's selfish, I'm being helped, why should I care? When people do things they actually want to do, one, they do a better job, and two, they have a better attitude. When people are told they need to do something, the attitude, generally, completely changes. Some people can fake a smile and act like they want to be there, but you can tell they don't. By rewarding students for soothing they didn't actually want to do, we are teaching students that they should only serve the community for a reward and ethically, this is wrong.
Overall, I believe that incentives for charitable things is only okay on occasions. We should teach students that the real reward is helping others who need help. In this case, the incentive is that it may boost your morals and teach you that it is good to do the right thing.
Shannon McCutcheon
I think giving rewards for charitable or good acts can go both ways. I know there are some people in this world that would truly like to help others in anything they need. Then, there are others that only do it because they simply know that they will ALWAYS get something in return. I think extra credit should be given academically but I highly disagree with the fact of giving extra credit for bringing supplies for the general classroom or the teacher. If you do extra credit as written work, or some form of school work for the teacher, that is a totally different type of extra credit if you just bring in supplies. Bringing stuff in doesn't only gives you the grade that looks good, not the grade that counts or that you mentally deserve. It doesn't show your academic achievement in the classroom which for a fact, is what matters most. but, depending on the person it could help them want to try harder in school and maybe teach them a lesson to try harder in life because they know there will always be success in the end while others will only do it because they know that if they at least get the job done, they will get rewarded.
ReplyDeleteOver all I think its for the good and bad. It just depends on the person. If its in schools though, then I think extra credit should be given through work. You have to work to get the grade you want, not bring in supplies.
Sydney Sell
Incentive as in money turns a charitable act into a non charitable act, it's no longer for the good of the people the charity is for it's for getting the incentive from it. If you're getting paid for volunteer work, it's no longer charity, it's paid labor. Paid for giving people supplies? You're just doing it for money. Giving us extra credit for it isn't bad, it just isn't charity work anymore.
ReplyDeleteTyler Chapman
I personally believe that giving your teachers essential needed items is great! but, I also believe that doing this just to be paid back with extra credit is bad. It isn't bad for the student, it is bad for the teachers. Teachers that stoop so low as to have to bribe students for germ-x or facial tissue are teaching students a bad lesson. They are teaching students that you can get anywhere in life if you have money to spend. With teachers teaching this, they are taking away students morals and reversing what the students parents pushed into them. If a student works for a good grade and gets like a b-plus average, then a slacker with an abundant resource of tissues that sleeps in class gets around a b-plus average; that'll make the hard working student start to think "why should I try, when this other kid doesn't?" this will then decrease the work ethic in that student. Therefore, teachers are replacing hard workers that give pride in their work, with kids that could care less. So, I believe that bartering extra credit points for charity is bad for the students.
ReplyDeleteDonovan Billings
I do not think that teachers should give extra credit such as bringing in Kleenex and school supplies. I think that if you give extra credit it should be extra work for the kid to do, because it is not fair to the kids that work hard in class and on projects to get the grade that they have or want. Also because most of the time the kid that wants extra credit is usually the person that sits in class and talks to everyone that doesn’t do their work, so it isn’t fair to let him get a good for not doing any of his work but can bring in box of tissues and get an A. I think grades are something you should work for and earn.
ReplyDeleteI think doing charity work should not be a grade because charity work is something that you should do for you or in some people’s case for beta points. I don’t think that teachers should really care what their kids do out of school, they should only care about what they do in class. And even though community service is great, I don’t think it should be extra credit. I think that only things that have to do with the class they are in or the curriculum should be for extra credit.
-Annie Cunningham
Nice post annie, but i have to disagree because i think that if your doing something good for others that you should get some credit out of it.
Delete-quanesha clay
Giving extra credit for charitable acts in my opinion is wrong. Teaching kids at a young age to do good deeds is a good thing, but they should do these deeds because they want to, not because it will give them bonus points. Any charitable act is superb, but giving credit to further education reasons, such as grades, is wrong. Giving this extra credit for doing something good defeats the purpose of doing the good deed in the first place. When someone does a good deed it should be from the heart, and when it is from the heart then they should have their own personal award of doing well.
ReplyDeleteGiving extra credit for these good deeds is also unfair to those who cannot afford to do these good deeds. For example one student might not be able to bring in Kleenex boxes to the class because they don’t have the money to do so. This does sound farfetched I know, buying Kleenex is fairly inexpensive, but there are those out there that are less fortunate to do these things for their classmates. If you want to give any type of praise for doing these good deeds a simple thank you should do just fine, especially if these students are doing this deed from the heart not because they can get a head start on getting good grades.
-Dylan Ruble-
I do not think it is a terrible thing to give extra credit for bringing in a supply for your class at school, I also do not think it sends a morally wrong message if you tell the child/ teen that doing "charity" won't always give you a reward in return. I actually don't consider that "charity" it does sound shabby when you say it like that, it needs a new name. There is a difference, it might not be too big but it is there- charity is a self-less act to help people and the idea comes from you, yourself, your good faith. But offering incentive for extra credit is not charity, you don't just decide to bring in some germ-x in your good faith, a teacher tells you and bribes you with extra credit to do so. If you make it clear they're not always going to get anything in return, it's not as bad as many people are making it out to be. Though there is a greater sense of accomplishment by doing work, I see no problem in giving extra credit for class items.
ReplyDelete-Kendra Harris
i dont think its a terrible idea either kindra. but i do think that bringing in germ-x should count because i paid for it and i should get something out of it.
Delete- quanesha clay
I think its a wonderful idea to give extra credit. some people may have good understandable reasons why they didnt do there homewrok or project ect. and need the extra credit. But i feel like if somebody that is not trying in school shouldnt get it because they choose to have bad grades, if i was a teacher and i had i student who didn't try in my class and just goofed off i wouldn't give it to them be cause they think school is a joke. But if i had a student that i noticed came too to school payed attention and actually tried hard in my class then i would give it too them. some people may think thats not fair but i would give it too who i thought deserved it.
ReplyDelete-quanesha clay