Punished by Rewards Essay Example

“You’re telling us to just get in a race for the traditional rewards. But what else is there?” states a boy on a balcony in Punished by Rewards, by Alfie Kohn. The boy is referring to the way of life of college students by calling out the author directly suggesting there is no other way to get anywhere in life except proper schooling and experience. In college, students will get an education to expand their knowledge of a subject as the purpose is to outline the foundations of their future career and find their inspiration for life at the same time.

In Punished by Rewards, Kohn depicts the school system by exploring grades and students' motivation. He mentions one writer stating, “a grade can be regarded only as an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite amount of material”(Kohn 201). The writer is explaining how grades inaccurately represent knowledge of a topic. In college, students are rated pass or fail in a subject based on the knowledge grasped of the topic they learned through tests and grading. One may depict the writer’s opinion as false because of the fact of how else will your knowledge be tested. In What the Best Teachers Do, by Ken Bain, there is a contrasting statement in regards to learning that explains,”Students that believe that they can become more intelligent by learning (a “mastery orientation”) often work to increase their own competence (adopting “learning goals”), not to win rewards”(Bain 35). This displays how grades and tests are up to the student and their work ethic to understand the subject and all of its layers. If a student truly wants to pursue a specific career, they will have the motivation and drive to learn every aspect of the field to excel. However, there are many different outlooks when it comes to college.

One perception that is not as widely mentioned, are students who do not know what they want to do in life. Not everyone has their ideals in life set since elementary school like a few students. If students do not know what they will want to do they have to stay motivated in taking random classes, but how? Depicting the doubts Kohn has, he states, “It might be said that students can become addicted to A’s and other incentives, unwilling to complete assignments without them and also dependent on them for their very identity”(Kohn 200). Students that do well in certain courses could excel because they enjoy it as well as they are good at it, or they just don’t want to fail. Whichever the case, both of these scenarios have become a repeating pattern in childhood. According to Bain, when young students were asked about topics that made them feel smart, they described, “tasks they found easy, that required little effort, and that they can do before anyone else without making mistakes”(Bain 34). Like mentioned before, had more inclination to do things they were good at. This pattern could explain how students today could find their major. One student that performs well in math could go into a STEM major. A student who enjoyed choir in their adolescent years could try to pursue a career in music. It’s not a bad thing to pursue a career in something you’re good at, it helps you find the motivation to build a life off of it.

One's college career might be different from another, it’s up to the student. Students should be motivated to want to do something with their life since they are finally in control whether it’s deciding their major or learning about the major they already picked. The newly found freedom for students will allow them to grow into what person they want to be. Outlining what you want to do for the rest of your life is tough, but school is always an option to go back to if you want to change career paths.