Desert Part 1: RewardsNovember 22, 2008 Returning to my earlier
discussion of ethics, desert is another ethical concept that has
been repeatedly neglected, or used only selectively, in
education in recent years. “Desert” is the extent to which an
action is worth rewarding or punishing. These days there are
real problems with the very suggestion that children might
deserve to be treated differently depending on their behaviour,
or effort. Most of the time, the objection to desert takes the
form of an objection to punishment, however, in its most extreme
form rewards are also challenged, for instance: It is
conventional for schools to demand respect from the children.
But does the school and the behaviour of adults, show respect
for the children? There are so many ways of showing disrespect,
and some of them are ways I thought had disappeared in the
1970s. It says: How many stars have you got this term? And here
are the children’s names, in alphabetical order: Amy (here are
12 stamps, each saying ‘well done’) D