Check this out...I'm sittin' here watchin' my man Dominic on Inside City Hall, and Mike Bloomy is paying $400 for high school graduation, $600 for each regents exam passed? What's going on?! Should a mo-fo get paid for what they s'pposed to be doing!!? A lot of interesting topics arise when we discuss this. Should this be looked at like a way for poverty stricken people to get ahead or is it just another hand out? My thing is at what point would you stop this program and what happens when everybody and, literally, they mama go graduate to get a check...Now if you ask "how we goin' pay for it?", it would be from private funds. So again, what's really good? Does it help to pay parents to come to the PTA meetin'? Please tell me what you all think?
The Lil' Harlemite
4 comments:
I think we're starting to see kids who are a direct result from the
crack epidemic era, an era when teenage pregnancy was at an all time
high. Hence, these kids have totally different sensibilities,
upbringing and values...Drastic times calls for drastic measures. At
my
core, I think it's a silly idea, but the statistics on graduation from
HS and college for young black and Latino males in particular are
pretty
sad.
Its seems like nothing else has worked, so maybe its time to try
something new. My only fear is that programs like this may breed a
sense of entitlement mentality to kids... They may start to think hey,
if I don't get paid, then I'm not doing or putting in any effort or
work. Thus, eliminating the development of a strong work ethic and the
joys of achieving something on the merits of just getting it done.
They
may feel you own them something for every little accomplishment... I
have 14 HS mentees as part of a mentoring program I work with... And
these kids get paid for doing their h.w. Unfreaking-believeable...
And
then look at me and say... So if we come to your program, how much you
gonna pay us?
Being that I am an old school Jamaican, my reply was very simple and
compelling...
"Bwoy, get ya rhas inna de classroom and read ah book, for me lick out
ya bloodclot....nuh talk back to me you likkle facety yout... You must
tink se me and you a size"
Loosely translated: Return to your studies young man, that kind of
indignation is not appropriate... Largely due to the fact that you and
I
aren't of the same age or peer group. Lol
Malik
LOL! "yu mus' tink me an yu ah size!"
But yeah... I totally agree .... I don't like the idea of paying kids
to
go to school; especially when there are kids around the world who would
give anything to be able to go to school.
Andre Edwards
Great point ! I think we sometimes forget that...
Malik
I'm kind of caught in the middle on this one. I don't think it is a totally bad idea, depending on how the mayor camppaigns this--he should maybe choose to make it sound more like an incentive scholarship rather than putting it out there as a means to get poor, academically challenged kids to go to school. On the flip side, it's not fair to exclude children who are doing excellently in school, and spotlight those who only care about the money.
Rasheeda Cooper
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