Spanish mayor offers kids $1.50 an hour to read
Mon, 2008-02-04 10:53
#1
Spanish mayor offers kids $1.50 an hour to read
Mon, 2008-02-04 10:53
#2
[url=http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080204/koddities/oddity_paid_to_read]... mayor offers kids $1.50 an hour to read in bid to cut dropout rate [/url]
quote:
NOBLEJAS, Spain - The mayor of a small town in Spain figures he knows how to keep children in school: pay them.Agustin Jimenez, Socialist mayor of the agricultural town of Noblejas in central Spain, is recommending the town's children be given a euro - the equivalent of $1.50 - for every hour they spend reading in the local library. The sweetener is part of a string of measures to be voted on by the Noblejas council in March.
Others include funds for apartments in university towns for students from Noblejas, teachers to give private lessons to struggling students, and expert advice to parents on the virtues of keeping their children at school.
Not everyone agrees with the idea. Some critics see it as a bribe that is bound to fail.
Others figure if the payments can get children hooked on reading, it may lead to greater interest in learning overall.
When I was a kid they had the Read It! program where you got free pizza (brand 'em young!) and that was enough to get me to the library!
Mon, 2008-02-04 19:21
#3
My sister sent me that story !
It is true though that schooling is a bit of a problem in small town Spain- less so than in previous years I get the impression. My father started working when he was 14 (this was the 60's), my Aunt's husband and his brothers left school at 16 ( the last one finished school in the 90's), my dad's brother was the same. My dad's sister is the only one with and actual trade in the family with her own small business. Allot of my older sister's Spanish girlfriends dropped out of school as well- which was interesting when we would visit when she was in cegep or University to my Dad's small town.
So I understand where this is coming from- but I don't think it is a good idea- just because the kids go to study won't mean they're motivated, interested and doing well. This is a similar problem allot of small town have I think- if you have no prospects and no means to leave, why continue school ?
[ 04 February 2008: Message edited by: Pride for Red Dolores ]
Sun, 2008-02-10 03:45
#4
rural - Francesca
Is anyone asking WHY the kids aren't reading??
My father tells the story of coming home from his equivalent to Kindergarten, with a note from the teacher saying he couldn't read. My grandmother followed up because he read all the time at home. Well turns out there were no books on trains at the school so he wouldn't read.
Mon, 2008-02-11 10:54
#5
Maybe the fact that [url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=cf9a2e... of kids have TVs in their room [/url] means they're watching TV before bed, instead of reading bedtime stories! Just a thought to stir the pot!
Mon, 2008-02-11 11:59
#6
I met some young guys from Spain on the west coast, California way back in the 1990's. Mostly electrical and telecom engineers not long out of school. They were there working on H1b visas while Americans with ten or more years of experience in similar job descriptions were being laid off. Diego told me that education was cheap in Barcelona and Madrid. But he and his friends wanted to travel, and so they went to Paris to access cheap post-secondary there and chase women while studying. I envied those guys travelling the world and without any student loan debt ball and chains like here. I thought to myself at the time, that's the way it should be for Canadian kids too with all the natural resource wealth and huge underdeveloped economic situation here.