New York Education Officials Bribing Students with Cell Phones
February 29, 2008 12:42 PM | Interesting | Comments (0)
| New York City officials are trying to motivate middle school students by giving them free cell phones. Last Wednesday, officials started giving cell phones to 2,500 students as part of a closely watched experiment. The intent is to change the way teenagers think about doing well in school. The pilot program is part of an effort by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and is being started at three Brooklyn middle schools and four charter schools. Each student is receiving a Samsung flip-phone loaded with 130 prepaid minutes. Good behavior, attendance, homework and test scores will be rewarded with additional minutes. Teachers and administrators will also be able to use a system to send text messages to several students at a time, to remind them, say, of upcoming tests and other school information. Several critics believe it's absurd for school officials to reward students with a device that is banned from the public schools. |  |
