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Working toward a higher motivation By Nehemia Shtrasler Tags: israel, Yuli Tamir, education  For years successive education ministers have been trying to increase the percentage of high school graduates eligible for a full matriculation certificate. That rate is, in effect, the most popular index for measuring the education minister's performance. On Thursday, Or Kashti published an article in Haaretz that reveals another method for raising matriculation eligibility rates: monetary grants. A study by Prof. Victor Lavy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that when students with particularly poor performances were promised NIS 6,000 if they passed their matriculation exams, they worked hard and performed well. The number of students in this group who earned matriculation certificates increased by about 20 percent. When the researchers did a follow-up a few years later they found that the percentage of students in this group who went on to higher education was about 30 percent higher than for the control group. As usual in these parts, nay-sayers quickly appeared. Education Minister Yuli Tamir said that "giving money is extremely uneducational," while Dr. Nimrod Aloni of Seminar Hakibbutzim Teachers College said the experiment represented the vulgarization and "total commercialization of culture, of educational values and of the expansion of knowledge... If the motivation is to get the cookie at the end of the experiment, then it is total blindness to the essence of the educational process and to its fruits." Advertisement Where's the vulgarization and commercialization here? After all, people have always needed rewards and incentives. Even in cheder, in the Diaspora, when a boy read a page of Torah fluently, the melamed gave him a candy. And those who graduate high school with honors are rewarded with a ceremony as well as a prize from the school. In the academic world, to which Aloni belongs, it is customary to award grants and scholarships. Students receive scholarships for excelling at their studies while teachers are given grants for successful research. Those who excel at music receive the Arthur Rubinstein Award, successful writers are given the Sapir Prize and talented journalists are awarded the Sokolow Prize. Is the writer who receives such a prize like a rat who gets "the cookie at the end of the experiment"? Does it damage the creative spirit? When teachers speak of their status within society, they argue that their low salaries are proof of the low status accorded to their profession, and therefore demand raises. Aloni should tell them that this is "vulgarization and total commercialization" and that they should not demand filthy lucre, which destroys "the education process and its fruits." Monetary rewards are not the only method that has been tried by education ministers in an effort to increase the matriculation eligibility rate. Amnon Rubinstein invented the "lottery system," which removed whole subjects from the examinations. Zevulun Orlev cut the amount of material by a third, using the "focus" system. Limor Livnat championed the "two exam date" method for math and English, and under Tamir the number of students given additional time and other adjustments due to "learning disabilities" increased markedly. Compared to all these transparent tricks, the idea of giving cash rewards seems much fairer and more logical. It suits human nature. The fact is that in return for NIS 6,000 students devoted more time to studying for the exams and took part in more "study marathons," while the material itself remained unchanged, with no reductions or relaxation of requirements. Thus, one can be a purist like Aloni, opposing any creative solution and continuing to live in a dream. But the monetary award improved the chances of weaker students for a better future and thereby increased social equality. To paraphrase a sentence from Tractate Sanhedrin of the Talmud: "Absorption in Torah, even for the wrong motives, may eventually lead to doing so with higher motives." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Egypt-Syria rift The Gaza situation demands more than a truce. It demands pan-Arab reconciliation. No Talking Livni rejects offer to contact Hamas via Russia for Gaza truce talks.

Read & React Palestinians: Mother, four children killed in IDF Gaza offensive Responses: 256 Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff: Now IDF is getting personal with Hamas Responses: 84 Aluf Benn: Int'l community giving Israel time to weaken Hamas Responses: 15 Gideon Levy: Whose blood is being spilled in Gaza, and why? Responses: 40 Bradley Burston: To win in Gaza, all Israel has to do is survive Responses: 54 More Headlines 00:46 Sarkozy: Hamas to blame for Gaza suffering 00:12 Israeli soldier killed as IDF deepens Gaza ground operation 01:00 'I'm going in,' IDF soldier told mother hours before he was killed in Gaza 22:42 Livni rejects Russian offer to pass messages on to Hamas 20:28 Four lightly wounded as 50 Gaza rockets pound southern Israel 22:23 Dick Cheney: Israel didn`t seek U.S. okay before Gaza invasion 20:28 Palestinians: Mother, 4 children killed in IDF Gaza offensive 19:39 WATCH: Amid Gaza violence, Israeli and Palestinian doctors save baby's life 19:23 Get up to the minute coverage of the warfare in Gaza directly to your email 19:24 Rocket alert sends New York's Bloomberg running for cover in Sderot 15:03 ANALYSIS / Israel's aim in Gaza is to break Hamas resistance 00:13 Greek demonstrators set banks on fire to protest IDF operation in Gaza 20:57 Knesset panel okays call-up of tens of thousands of IDF reservists 17:59 Peres: No Gaza truce right now, Hamas needs a 'real lesson' 01:32 Madoff victims selling memorabilia of disgraced financier on eBay 20:02 Iranian military commander: Cut oil exports to Israel`s supporters 21:01 Shin Bet Chief: Hamas has eased its demands for Gaza truce with Israel 18:55 EU foreign policy chiefs begin mission to seek Gaza cease-fire 18:08 Report: Hamas holding 2 Israeli soldiers; IDF: No knowledge of report 10:30 ANALYSIS / International community giving Israel time to weaken Hamas in Gaza 10:29 ANALYSIS / Solution to Gaza crisis requires pan-Arab effort Previous Editions Select Day 04 jan 02 jan 01 jan 31 dec 30 dec 29 dec 28 dec 26 dec 25 dec 24 dec 23 dec 22 dec

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