‘Fat kids who don’t like to read’: Why “incentive”-based learning doesn’t work–online or off’

This morning I caught cholera, was chased by Troggles, and was eaten by a large fish while indulging in a few hours of nostalgia on an Apple II GS emulator.

By 1990, when I started school, educators had realized that students weren’t learning as well as they should, and something had to be done about it. Enter two schools of thought: bribery and Fun With Technology, both of which have evolved and expanded in the last fifteen years. The bribes have gotten bigger and better, but in my and my peers’ experience as bribe-receivers, that doesn’t address the flaws inherent in the system.

Reading for the stomach, not for the mind

In 1985, Pizza Hut introduced the Book It! program. If students get their parents to sign off on a form saying they read a certain number of books (or these days, minutes) per month, they get a sticker on a big, colorful pin. Once they get five stickers, they get a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. My school added a bonus bribe: if you get stickers for every month of the school year, you can spend one day watching movies and eating candy instead of sitting in class.

So what happened? The kids who were inclined to read anyway got themselves a few free pizzas without going out of their way. The kids who weren’t inclined to read would pick easy books: “See Spot Run” might not be a page-turner in the 4th grade, but it got you pizza. And the kids who felt the hassle outweighed the pizza didn’t bother, with no one providing negative repercussions. And once the pizza was gone, the readers kept reading and the non-readers stopped bothering.

I’ve seen the program described as producing “fat kids who don’t like to read.” And there’s plenty of people telling similar stories: here, here, here.

Better bribes for better effects?

Kenneth Komoski‘s essay “No Child (Consumer) Left Behind” (posted here 11/6) proposes giving poor kids “computers and broadband discounts by using them as learning tools for improving academic performance.” The allure of a computer is big– but not because it can raise your grades. I see no reason why this program would be different from any other bribe-based program: besides the motivated ones who are seeking out opportunities anyways, kids will putz through the required activities at the lowest level possible, and within ten seconds of their twenty minutes being up, AIM, P2P, e-mail, and three browser windows will be open.

Then there’s the question of less critical rewards: not having Gap might hurt your trendiness, but without a computer you can’t even IM a friend to ask if your clothes are cool. Those kids have even more options to get what they want: Is it less hassle to a) find the easiest way to get through some computer lessons, or b) use your allowance or c) mooch some money off your parents?

In neither case does the bribe-incentive program create “life-long learners”. Once the program is over and the boy is allowed to keep his computer regardless, and the girl has that awesome new sweater, there’s nothing preventing them from going back to their old habits– and the program will have done nothing to create a more positive attitude towards learning for learning’s sake.

Reading with bears and catching diseases: Educational technology that works

When I was little, I would sit in my room for hours and read along with a talking bear and oversized centipede. They had exciting adventures, and each would speak his own dialogue. Teddy Ruxpin and his friend Grubby, with their companion tapes and illustrated storybooks, made reading a blast and turned me on to other great fantasy books like “The Neverending Story”, with some parental help.

While I was lucky enough to have a computer at home, it was the school that was the focal point for technology use. Typing A-S-D-F over and over again is boring, but learning to type is fun when it’s in the form of a Super Mario style game. We didn’t feel a sense of urgency with multiplication until our Number Muncher was in danger of getting eaten by vicious Troggles. Playing “Odell Lake” put us in the position of various types of fish, making life-or-death food chain decisions. And the drama and excitement involved trying to make it from Boston to Oregon in “Oregon Trail” without dying of disease, drowning, injury or starvation lead me and more than a few of my classmates to learn more about that part of American history.

These are the programs that made Computer Lab Day great. These are the programs that made us want to learn. These are the programs we look up on-line long after we have to write the multiplication tables, draw the food chain, or write a 5-paragraph essay on the Oregon Trail.

Conclusion

For a child to become a “life-long learner,” they have to view learning as something enjoyable and worthwhile on its own merits– not as a means to the end of getting what they really want. Bribery may get some short-term results, but once the incentive is gone, the motivation to learn goes with it.

So as not to be accused of criticizing without suggesting anything better, let me throw my idea out there, as one who has been bribed, cajoled, and entertained in hopes that I will enjoy learning.

Instead of putting time, energy, and money into better incentive programs, direct those resources towards developing games kids can’t get enough of, and integrating educational materials into those games. Imagine if “Oregon Trail” included (simplified, if necessary) passages from primary source documents such as diaries from actual pioneers that provided hints about navigating the trail more successfully and getting a higher score. Or if character dialogue describing the Donner Party had a link to an included e-book with more information about the grisly tale of cannibalism. (Something Wikipedia style– you can’t expect most kids to drag themselves to the library to find out more, but clicking on links within something interesting they’re reading in order to get more info is something they’re already used to.)

Students could check these out at the beginning of the year on tablet pc’s like they do textbooks (with a similar policy of charging for damaged/destroyed/missing units). Furthermore, they could bring the tablets to class to be updated with the materials for the current unit in math, history, etc– also a way to double-check that the students still have them.

You can bribe and/or punish kids into doing just about anything, from reading to eating brussel sprouts. But the only things they’ll continue into their adult life are those things that have become engrained habits. Unless you plan on keeping up the bribery (in which case you’ve engrained not the habit of learning, but of using a system to get what you want) that’s not the way to go.

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Contributor’s note: TeleBlog contributor Quinn Anya Carey, 20, is a BA/MA student in the University of Chicago’s Slavic Linguistics program.