I listened to a lively debate on the radio recently. It was between talk show host Laura Ingraham, and Baltimore Schools CEO, Dr. Andres Alonso. Dr. Alonso has had amazing results in his low performing school district. He has some radical ideas for competing with the seductive drug culture in his city. And by drug culture, I mean the powerful temptation for high school students to drop out and sell drugs. Dr. Alonso pays students to do well on tests.

Laura Ingraham called this bribing students to do well, and she disagreed with it. She wondered why parents didn’t expect their children to do well of their own volition. Dr. Alonso pointed out the percentage of his students in foster care or homeless.

Neither was able to articulate that they were talking apples and oranges. The students Ingraham was talking about were children that had homes and loving, involved parents. Dr. Alonso was talking about children that were growing up essentially wild, having to raise themselves. These students could and do take advantage of everything Dr. Alonso and the Baltimore schools throw at them, including money for improved test scores.

He has had remarkable success.

I was troubled with the word, “bribe.” We have a system of positive and negative rewards in our home. If a child does well, they earn a positive reward. If they don’t do well, they earn a negative reward, which looks like a punishment. Everything in society is based on these kinds of rewards–why not prepare them for it at home?

What do you think? Do you consider it bribery or incentive to succeed?