Comments on: Do smart kids deserve cheaper plastic surgery? http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/teamkenan/do-smart-kids-deserve-cheaper-plastic-surgery/ Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:09:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 By: Eddie http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/teamkenan/do-smart-kids-deserve-cheaper-plastic-surgery/#comment-2 Eddie Sat, 05 Feb 2011 20:52:07 +0000 http://devilsdilemma.wordpress.com/?p=140#comment-2 I think the “problem” with the whole system of rewards/incentives is that it can only respond to a certain type of “education,” namely, that which is result-based and quantifiable. After all, it’s rather hard to figure out how much more appreciative of Restoration comedy I became after taking my wonderful Writing 20 class. But if I were to have written a paper AND to have had it recognized as the best paper in the class (because the Tiger Mom takes 2nd place to be the 1st place for losers), then we’re talking.

Now, if we divorce the rewards system from the focus on quantifiable results, then we no longer need an external, monetary system of rewards. In other words, if students start valuing education for its own sake, rather than solely as a means to college, money, trophy spouses, and so on, then the rewards will become an internalized and incorporated into education itself.

And if that happens, then maybe looks–especially artificially constructed ones–won’t be as important to people as they are today.

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