Haley Nelson
Juneau
Essay Topic: How can our schools move students towards civic responsibility, i.e., becoming voters, increasing awareness of local, state, and national governments and political issues, and understanding the relationship of our history to current situations?
As the Associated Student Body President for Student Council, I work intimately with students who have no interest in civic responsibility. Some participate to find community, build resumes, meet potential love interests, gain popularity and, on rare occasions, to contribute ideas and energy to improve our school. In my position, I’ve had to develop strategies to engage the adolescent brains of my peers, while subliminally imparting upon them the importance of civic responsibility for the school and, in the grander sense, their lives. The most effective strategy I have come upon: pure incentives and rewards.
Studies conducted by JDHS Health classes showed that the student group most invested in their activity was the athletes. They have the most recognition, tangible payoff, school trips, and were privy to the most school resources and time. This clearly shows a positive correlation between the investment of students to their respective activities, and the amount of rewards they receive by participating. It’s not to say that every student acts on the promise of an extrinsic reward, but in truth, it seems to be a significant factor.
Reward systems can yield a lot more than the initial intention of getting something accomplished. A reward motivates, challenges, and broadens people through the experience of obtaining it. During my time as school President, I have repeatedly observed my peers execute tasks with amazing motivation in their quest to obtain a reward, while learning valuable lessons from participating in the experience.
In the effort to instill a sense of importance upon civil responsibility, I believe that schools should make it a priority in the way that sports are a priority: through reward systems. When reward systems are in place, students will naturally gravitate towards civic activities. By experiencing them for the sake of such rewards, the knowledge and importance gained will be a natural by-product, just by offering the option of learning about it.
For the question of what rewards will be most effective, the closer the rewards can be to something relevant in a student’s life, the more effective they will be. For students who aren’t invested in school, offering incentive in external areas in their lives, such as offering coupons to movie theatres and restaurants can be a great motivator. For those students invested in their education, extra credit in classes can have the same effect. For others, offers of higher-level rewards such as public recognition or a monthly parking space for excellent civic service can also be great motivators. Our school recently instituted a randomized voluntary drug testing option for students in which rewards were set for participating in the program. So far, the incentives that have been extended, such as discounts at local venues and periodic grand-prize drawings, have been met with success in keeping students off of drugs, and have also inspired previous users to quit. This is just one example of a successful reward system.
Perhaps the most important step toward elevating civic responsibility is to show that the school sees it as a priority. By taking steps such as mandating community service hours to pass classes, holding seminars, projects, and workshops that address civic responsibility, and by constantly encouraging and engaging students in civic service, schools can effectively relate to the student body that it should be an important aspect in their lives. In the voluntary drug testing example, I don’t believe that the result would have been nearly as significant had my school not constantly emphasized the importance of being “drug-free” through such avenues as “Red Ribbon Week,” substance abuse forums, etc.
The truth is that working for rewards and working out of inspiration are two very different things, and that’s a crucial distinction for schools to make. If schools offer rewards for civic service without establishing the school’s own investment in it, the goal to instill its importance in students would be shallow and short-lived. Although either direction a school chooses to take—rewarding civic responsibility or emphasizing its importance without supplementary incentive—has the potential to work, the outcome will be far more profound and effective when the two are working in concert.
