Thanks for showing up!

Today the New York Times ran an article on incentives for perfect attendence (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/education/05reward.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin). This concept is not new to Baltimore City. A fellow teacher's school offers field trips for students, another's offers activity days at school, my principal has suggested video games and other (noneducational) rewards. Although these aren't the month's rent or trips to Disneyland mentioned in the article, I still am very conflicted on the issue. Student's attendence is one of our biggest obstacles - a trend very common in urban schools. But rewarding them just for being there? Education for the sake of education, not for prizes. Is getting them there (hoping that means recieving an education) worth the message we are sending? It doesn't seem like a good life lesson and it seems to devalue school, but maybe it's worth it. I'm not convinced.