READ ALEXIA KINGZETTE’S COUNTERPOINT TO THIS COLUMN
I, myself, have received around three of four Bulldog Bucks so far, but haven’t won any prizes. I think that the incentive is definitely working and making kids want to get them. Kids are always clamoring about getting a Bulldog Buck, or trying to get one. In most of my classes, there are generally a few kids who do this.
Starting this year, there is a new incentive to act more like an RB Bulldog: Bulldog Bucks! Bulldog Bucks are awarded to students who have exhibited the Six Pillars of Character: Respect, Trustworthiness, Citizenship, Responsibility, Caring, and Fairness.
Some people say that this is unnecessary. I respectfully disagree. I think an incentive is a great thing for students. After all, in the summer reading book for sophomores, Freakonomics, I learned of different ways different incentives can be useful.
If the incentive is strong enough, which in this case it is, the people receiving the incentive, the students, will work to get the incentive. Giving kids a Bulldog Buck so they can potentially win something of value, and getting positive behavior from it, is a good incentive because kids will act and respond. Some of the prizes you can win are a ten dollar gift card, or a fast pass in the lunch line, or even Prom tickets later in the year. These are incentives strong enough to make people behave and act more like an RB Bulldog.
What is so wrong with that? Kids like to be rewarded and will always love food and prizes.
If the goal is to have a ‘doghouse full of Bulldogs,’ so to speak, how is an incentive going to hurt or make anything worse?
