Teaching Using the Interstudent Program:

Why not try the ultimate teaching tool -- bribery?

Janet Terry

[The following comments were written in the 1970s by Janet Terry, a teacher
at Foothill High School in the Tustin School District of California,
after she began to use the InterStudent Mini-Course Program]

Four years ago I had the dubious honor of becoming the first teacher at Foothill High School to teach the board-imposed economics course newly required of all graduating seniors. The course had been hastily thrown together and was loosely defined as consisting of both theoretical and applied (consumer) economics. Seniors were openly hostile to the new requirement and cursed the fate that kept them from graduating before it came into effect and instead surrendered them to endless hours of tedium in what had to be a horrendously boring subject, since they, like most of the initiated, knew only that there wasn't anything about economics that they wanted to know.

The textbook chosen by the board seemed designed to reinforce their judgement of the subject. Given only two weeks to prepare before launching the inaugural class in summer school, I cast about desperately for something with which to salvage both myself and my students. I found two solutions which appear to have made my economics class a worthwhile endeavor for all involved. One of these was a fortuitous introduction to Harry Pollard of the Henry George School of Los Angeles, who ably demonstrated to all involved that there is indeed a great deal worth knowing about economics. The mini-courses were subsequently developed in my classroom.

The second solution was a method I first conceived on a whim; although amazingly simple, it has never failed to arouse student interest. Furthermore, it is a method that can be easily adapted to any classroom situation and any teacher personality. In a word, this simple method is bribery; that is to say, I allow students to buy their grades for a price. The only catch is that they must earn the money with which to purchase them.

I begin each semester with a casual discussion of graduation requirements, the importance of passing Economics and the importance of the grade point average on college transcripts. Students are then asked what an 'A' is worth to them. After a brief discussion they are informed that 'A' will indeed be sold to the persons with the highest bids at the end of the semester. Students are at first incredulous at such an idea, then amused and finally intrigued. At this point they begin to look for money-making opportunities.

Each student begins the course with a balance of $1,000, but is then presented with a bill for the expenses he will incur during the course (paper, textbook rental, desk rental, air conditioning, lectures, etc. ) which then leaves him with a beginning balance of $250. He is then made aware of opportunities to increase his balance and is also cautioned about the ways in which it may be diminished.

Generally speaking, money is earned by any worthwhile student activity such as projects, research, reading, tests, etc. and lost through absences ($25 per day if excused, $50 per day if unexcused), tardies ($5 the first time, $10 the second etc. ) and errors made on checks or deposit slips ($5 per error).

This is a continually evolving system that changes each semester in response to student interest and suggestions, teacher inspiration and experience and other factors. In the beginning for example, I tried to handle all the banking myself but found it too time consuming. Now I hire four bank tellers and two clerks per class and train them to process checks for me. Likewise, I found the mere writing of checks to be time consuming and have since relegated it as much as possible to the bank clerks. I have recently acquired a stamp with the bank president's signature to free me from the drudgery of signing checks. In other words, I continually strive to satisfy my desire with the least possible exertion.

As may be surmised, there is a tremendous amount of paperwork involved, which necessitates the development of a number of standard forms. Among these are checkbooks, checks (in color and scenic), deposit slips, checkbook registers, statement sheets and contracts (used to request to do a project).

I have found it useful to add a record sheet to the bank folder to have a record of how money was made and lost and also a form for automatic deductions for abscences, tardies and errors. The first forms I did myself out of necessity, but the system now perpetuates itself. When I find the bank running low on checks, for example, I merely post a notice on the bulletin-board advertising an opportunity for employment at the bank. I then give the applicant a copy of the old form and a blank ditto and pay him to make as many copies as I need. 1 also prepare for the next semester by having checkbooks and bank folders made in advance this same way.

The greatest problem I find is in supplying enough work to meet everyone's demands. Students are constantly lined up at the bank looking for employment. I try to accommodate as many as possible by never doing anything myself that I could hire a student to do for me. I also find it helps the less brilliant students if they can do some typing or make a poster to earn some of their money. More passive students can earn money by reading books of economic interest at the rate of $ 1 per page.

Students themselves become very clever at thinking up ways to earn money. The first time I use a film-strip or movie in class, someone invariably offers himself for employment as permanent projectionist -- for a suitable salary of course.

One girl noticed the numerous staples embedded in the bulletin-board and offered to remove them. Someone usually thinks to grade multiple choice tests for which I usually pay $10 each. It never takes long for the more enterprising students to realize that they can contract the job to someone else for less.

i Some of their money schemes are indeed ingenious, as was the one concocted by three students during the senior recognition day. As part of the homecoming activities, all seniors were to come dressed as cowboys and Indians. The bank payed $10 for each student in costume and was receiving nominations for the $50 award for the best costume when the door flew open and two masked men holding a screaming frontiers-woman burst in with guns blazing and tried to rob the bank. They then proceeded to present the bank with a bill for the entertainment.

There are more orthodox methods of making money. Each test or quiz receives both a letter grade and a corresponding monetary award with an 'A' receiving twice as much as a 'C' and a 'B' receiving 1-1/2 times the amount of the 'C'. No money is awarded for less than 'C'. Moreover, students are required to make an investment on the more important test. The investment is lost if they make less than a 'C'. Originally I assigned the amount to be invested but this semester's students made an innovation that has proved very popular. The day before one such test, a student inquired whether he might invest more than the usual amount required. His suggestion inspired such group enthusiasm that after thinking it over, I agreed to set a minimum but no maximum on the investment. This opened the door for a flurry of pretest wheeling and dealing as students contracted loans from each other and made investments in the better students.

All such deals are privately contracted between individuals and does not involve the bank. Students were previously required to make their investment before taking test; now they are allowed to take the test before deciding how much to invest.

Some students are rather timorous about gambling with their hard-earned funds in such a way, whereas others openly advertised for investors. By the end of this last semester, we had developed in one class the classic case of the rich getting richer, while the poor fell quickly behind when one very good student was able to invest $10, 000 in one test and doubled her money with an 'A'.

Another way in which students may increase their bank balance is by doing comparison shopping projects. One such project is required of every student, but there is no limit on the number a student may elect to do.

Before beginning on his project, each student must submit a contract and make an investment. Due date and content as well as projected purchase price are decided in a conference with the bank president. If a project is not completed on time, the student loses his investment.

As the semester progresses, competition increases sharply, as does their financial acumen. Oral quizzes ($25 for each correct answer) are especially competitive. This greed makes possible a number of interesting activities. For example, I sometimes offer to sell the answers to a multiple choice test. To do this, I wait until students are well started on the test before casually announcing that I have two copies of the answers for sale. I guarantee the answers to be correct and allow the buyers to resell them when finished. Buyers (they are always bought) are requested to work in the hall -- so that no-one can steal from them - and to remain there after resale of the answers for the same reason. The real reason is to prevent the rest of the class from witnessing the seizures of apoplexy that occur in the hall when the buyers reach the phrase at the bottom that says 'not necessarily in the above order'. The usual reaction is to immediately 'do unto others' as the outraged student rushes back into the room to find a new victim to whom to sell the answers.

The group finishing their tests in the hall usually grows to include most of the class and some of the later profits on resale are enormous. When everyone is finished, the class gets a lecture on 'caveat emptor'. Strangely enough, students are not willing to buy answers from each other - more out of greed than honesty. They simply prefer to do it all themselves and save" the money they would spend. Cheating is at a minimum for the same reasons, as are tardies and absences.

There is one small problem that occurs as a result of escalating competition and that is inflation; $25 at the end of the semester just will not buy what it did at the beginning. Even parents are affected. I recently advertised $500 for finding a good home for a stray cat. The following day a student reported that his father said we had a deal if I would up the price to $750!

I have adapted this method to the mini-courses in a number of ways. Again, this is something that continues to evolve with each use. I began by awarding $5 to each member of the group that is the first to turn in each correct test answer and a substantial award to each member of the teams placing first, second and third. I have now extended this so that each group makes some monetary gain, albeit a small one.

I dropped the debates last semester and substituted instead a written test over the concepts presented in the mini-course. Students make individual investments on their own tests and receive a private return and grade as on any other tests; however, they are also required to make an investment in their final team score. Each group's tests are averaged together and added to the team score to determine the mini-course winners.

As a result tremendous pressure is placed on group members to do well and an effort is made by members of the group to adequately prepare everyone for the exam. Slackers are not tolerated; one group of students informed me that they had arbitrarily expelled three members of their group because they would not work.

The question of grading must have occurred by now. Obviously it is not the same to make $750 by adopting a cat as it is to make it by high test scores or serious research. This is the purpose of the record sheet in each student's bank folder. All checks must be complete with memo which the banker uses while processing the check to indicate on the record sheet how the money was made or lost.

At the end of the semester, each student examines his own folder and records a summary of how much money was made in various categories -- tests, mini-courses, projects, reading, etc. as well as how much was lost due to attendance. I use these summaries to determine the real value of his money. It does make a differance how the money was acquired, although this fact is not emphasized to students. I have found that students with the highest test grades are invariably the same ones with the highest bank balances.

This is a method I have found to be highly adaptive and very successful in stimulating interest. (It is also fun for the teacher), I foresee many new possibilities for it. For example, I would like to see a wealthy student become a man of 'independent means' by merely investing in others. We almost had a charity case last semester, that is, a student who was considering organizing a drive to get other students to donate money to him. It would have been interesting to see that develop.

I would like to treat one test communistically by splitting the returns equally. I would also like to introduce some form of taxation. Whatever form it takes in the future, I am confident that it will continue to motivate students as it has in the past.

Will Rogers once remarked that "America has the best politician's money can buy". I am firmly convinced that the same can be said of our students.