carrot or stick?

Posted by on June 8, 2005 in general thoughts | 0 comments

The local college is spending my money, “encouraging” students to do a summer course by offering them a free iPod.

I understand what they are trying to do, this course is aimed at people 16-18 who normally drop out of education, its a summer course teaching life skills like CV writing.

What worries me is that some of these people are the same ones who were given special attention when they mis-behaved at primary school… trips and extra activities when they were at secondary school. What kind of person does this encourage?

I can’t help but feel there is a growing trend of rewarding mis-behaviour, and, whilst I’ll be the first to state that the world problems can be solved by education and not just locking up offenders. Is this really getting to the root problem of why these kids are rejecting education?

You know what, I think I know the answer.

These kids have no realistic goals, read studies and the people they idolise are perceived as being lucky to get famous. They aspire to be Beckham, Jordan or even z listers like Big Brother n Pop Idol winners.

They need Life Coaching lessons at school, to encourage them to dream and work to make those dreams come true. Rather than just being bombarded with images that offer an unrealistic dream.

Every sector I’ve ever worked in, people from outside think I’ve had it easy or lucky. Rubbish. I’ve worked hard to do all the things I’ve done in my life so far and none of them have been easy.

Take an example, Radio DJ’ing… exciting? Glamourous? Well Paid? All about knowing the right people?? Poppycock! (hahaha, wanted to fit that word in somewhere!)

The reality is, yes, there are a few high paid stars at the top tier but they’ve all worked their arses off, getting into local radio can be done if you work hard but trust me the pay aint that good, yes it has its odd perks but I’ve lost track of the amount of events I’ve had to do for free… why do I do it? It adds credibility to my club DJ’ing and I love it!

Every vocation has its high paid superstars, from IT (Steve Jobs, Bill gates…) to sports, it also has 100’s and 1000’s of people working their arses off for little recognition.

Lets get this balance right, lets educate kids to be more realistic, to set goals, to dream and maybe then we can prevent “yob culture” from taking over.

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