Reason #30 to VOTE NO on ISSUE 3 CLICK THIS TEXT TO VISIT THIS BLOG'S CURRENT SITE

Because Issue 3 makes a mockery of the words "learn" and "earn."

Learn

Earn (yes, I realize where the link leads; that's my point)

This program represents what I grew up understanding to be learning and earning programs connected to education. It also represents the basic concepts about how education and money can be connected, for the students' sake, and still teach youth and latent adolescents about not getting something for nothing.

But Issue 3 lowers the threshold to the point where that lesson - you can't get something for nothing - has no meaning. From my role as a parent, I know how hard it can be to motivate kids. But you don't coerce motivation with monetary incentives like those in Issue 3. For one thing, the payoff won't come for so long - how many parents do you know who can keep up the pressure for 12 years, not to mention kids who'll understand that kind of payoff system?

Second, we should be working to convince a child to learn because he or she needs that knowledge to survive, to become independent, to find happiness. Not because it's a means to end - though, of course, it is one of the means to the end of surviving, becoming independent and finding happiness. Education, by itself, contains so many reasons for engaging in it. How do you think we've ended up with the Enron, Tyco and now HP debacles, if not for suggesting that the pursuit of money outranks the pursuit of anything else?

Many politicians talk about the link between education and economic development as though education exists only for the purpose of economic development. And Issue 3 reinforces that perspective while it de-emphasizes, neutralizes and pretty much throws away the notion that education is an end in and of itself. When you remove the self-motivation for education, you end up with people who have learned to rely solely on external factors for that motivation - like money, from other people.

Anyone who knows anything about education and personal development knows that a reliance on external factors for motivation is the number one killer of self-esteem and self-confidence, because you will forever be looking to and blaming everyone else for your next success or failure.

Traditional learn and earn programs, like the one described here, exist on the opposite end of the spectrum: you value the education because you worked for it - it's your time and effort. No excuses for not doing better, except to blame yourself.

Is learning work? Sure - for some people more than others. And kids should be rewarded when they show consistent effort and achievement. But 1) to say that kids get this money for meeting the requirements all kids should meet (like showing up and meeting Ohio's curriculum standards) is too low a threshold for such alleged big bucks and 2) to get those big bucks from the losses of people who already have looked to the luck of the draw as way to survive or find happiness sends a message that will further erode whatever regard currently exists for the educated person in this state.

Previous reasons to vote no on Issue 3:

Reason 31

Reason 32
Reason 33
Reason 34
Reason 35
Reason 36
Reason 37
Reason 38
Reason 39
Reason 40
Reason 41
Reason 42
Reason 43
Reason 44
Reason 45
Reason 46
Reason 47
Reason 48
Reason 49
Reason 50
Reason 51
Reason 52
Reason 53
Reason 54
Reason 55
Reason 56
Reason 57

Vote no on Issue 3.