I teach in a small, rural school. Every year our Seniors raise money to go on a "school sponsored" Senior trip. To raise the money we have various fund raisers throughout the year. In the past when I have been the Senior sponsor, like I am this year, I have pro-rated the fundraising based upon the work that each student put in to the various fundraisers. More emphasis was put on fundraisers that involved student participation (like dinners, working donkey basketball games and such) than was put on fundraisers that involved selling things because I realize that some students have an advantage when it comes to selling stuff because of their contacts and such. So, based upon fundraising projects that involved individual student participation I pro-rated the spending money when it came time to make the trip. A student who showed up to work a dinner or came after to help clean up would receive more points and thus get a larger percentage of the spending money come trip time than the student who had the same opportunity and chose to go swimming instead (it is a small community and you can easily know when it happens). It wasn't a vast difference but perhaps one would get $120 and one would get $150.
Because of various accounting laws we now have to divide the money equally among the students in the class. My students asked me how that was fair that the guy who did no work at all got the same as the girl who worked her rear off all year. My explanation was basically that it was life and they just needed to get used to it. Something like, "Sally, you have worked hard all year and Jethro hasn't done squat. But then there's Barney and he hasn't accumulated as many points as you because he has some disability or something legitimate that prevented him from working. In life you'll work and pay taxes that will benefit those who truly need it and there will always be those who try to beat the system and take unfair advantage of your hard work. That doesn't mean that we should eliminate everything available to help those who truly need it but should keep the government working (hold them accountable AMAP) to catch those who are truly free-loading along on the work of others."
While I don't like having to divide the money equally as I feel that the lesson of rewarding hard work goes to the wayside and is lost, this is the explanation that I gave. The part about taxes and help programs is the way that I truly feel. I am not against them at all but do want the ones taking unfair advantage of the system to be weeded out. That is as good an explanation as an old math teacher could come up with.
Because of various accounting laws we now have to divide the money equally among the students in the class. My students asked me how that was fair that the guy who did no work at all got the same as the girl who worked her rear off all year. My explanation was basically that it was life and they just needed to get used to it. Something like, "Sally, you have worked hard all year and Jethro hasn't done squat. But then there's Barney and he hasn't accumulated as many points as you because he has some disability or something legitimate that prevented him from working. In life you'll work and pay taxes that will benefit those who truly need it and there will always be those who try to beat the system and take unfair advantage of your hard work. That doesn't mean that we should eliminate everything available to help those who truly need it but should keep the government working (hold them accountable AMAP) to catch those who are truly free-loading along on the work of others."
While I don't like having to divide the money equally as I feel that the lesson of rewarding hard work goes to the wayside and is lost, this is the explanation that I gave. The part about taxes and help programs is the way that I truly feel. I am not against them at all but do want the ones taking unfair advantage of the system to be weeded out. That is as good an explanation as an old math teacher could come up with.