Emily Preti

Pretest Writing
Humans are flawed beings, and one of our most flawed characteristics is the inability to resist
being bribed. We try to look for an easy way out of the work of everyday life. Bribing students with
extra credit can be viewed as either good or bad, but is not doing a good deed worth a meager amount
of extra credit? By giving extra credit to those who bring in objects to donate to charity, we are simply
praising the person who did a good deed.
Children learn from early in life that good deeds will get you far in life, and earning a few bonus
points along the way will only show the person that giving donations is a rewarding thing to do. I have
observes what happens when teachers do not praise or promote donating early on. Children who do
not realize the benefits of charity are less likely to give to charity when they grow older.
In my early years of education my teachers would drag on and on about how donating to charity
is one of the most rewarding experiences you can live through. Those same teachers also praised us to
an extreme amount when we did something selfless, and yes, sometimes even rewarding us with extra
credit. We like to be praised for something that we have done. It is only natural. Nobody wants to be
scolded or shamed because they were being selfish when they had the means to help others.
When I was in seventh grade, a science and English teacher had set up an experiment for the
students. Both of the classes put up a board advertising a need for soup in a can to donate to a local
shelter. Both teachers reminded the students daily for a week about bringing in soup for the hungry.
The difference was that my English teacher was rewarding those who brought in the can of soup and the
science teacher was not. At the end of the week the classes were surprisingly close. The teachers then
did a survey asking the students if they donate on a regular basis. In the science class, over half the class
said they enjoyed donating, and did it regularly. In the English class, the students answers were not as
high; less than half the class donated on a regular basis. This study showed that even though extra
credit can help, students donate to charity because it was been drilled into their minds that it is the right
thing to do.
Extra credit is a tool used to reward students who care enough to donate to charity. It is not a
negative thing to do. Doing a good deed should be rewarded, so giving extra credit should not be
viewed as a negative incentive.