Would The Hard Work Cafe Have Made A Difference To You ?
Okay, I admit it. I’m a Kentuckian. Even when we do something less than stellar, I don’t deny my birth motto.
” American by birth, Kentuckian by The Grace of God “
Seems doing well in school just for the sake of learning, expanding their horizons and creating opportunities didn’t appeal to some middle school students in my home state, so some well meaning educators did what they usually do in these situations.
They tried to bribe ‘em to do right, rather than teaching them to do right because it’s what you’re supposed to do.
A group of eastern Kentucky educators, at Lawrence County Middle School in Louisa, set up the Hard Work Cafe.
Come to school 5 days a week, like you’re supposed to and you might get an invite.
Behave properly, like you’re supposed to and you might get an invite.
Do your work, like you’re supposed to and you might get an invite.
Doesn’t sound too hard does it ? Well, there’s a drawback. Teachers recommend one student from their class to visit the cafe every Friday for lunch.
Seems that would leave the invite up to the ol’ teachers pet thang.
Me ? I would have been in school every day, unless the fish were bitin’, because they fed you and we didn’t always have a lot of food where I grew up.
I also would have done my work, like I was supposed to, if only so I wouldn’t have to listen to a teacher whine about the virtues of sillyass busywork.
BUT, and this is a big J Lo but, I would have never made it to the Hard Work Cafe because I wouldn’t have been in the selection process simply because I was never the type to be a teachers pet.
On the contrary, I liked beatin’ those kids up before, during and after school, when necessary !
So, this thang can work for good and can work for not so good … kinda like a sales contest, which is what it is in essence.
Why do right ? Because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Why sell the heck out of your product ? Because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Don’t bother with sales contests, just find kids and sales people who actually want to sell.
If you want an opinion on sales contests from someone a bit more well known and more widely read than I am, try this post that validates what I say about sales contests.
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9 Responses to “Would The Hard Work Cafe Have Made A Difference To You ?”
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Mike,
Gosh, you sure have made some assumptions here about the Hard Work Cafe at Louisa Middle School.
Let me start by saying I work at LMS as the coordinator of the Youth Services Center. The Hard Work Cafe idea was brought back to our principal by me and we teamed up with a teacher who actually put a lot of effort into getting it done.
But I would really like to address your assumption that it is a lounge for teachers’ pets.
When we implemented the Hard Work Cafe we made it clear to our teachers that it was not supposed to be a situation where you reserved a spot for your favorite kid each week and they got to lounge in luxury while everyone else trudged through the cafeteria.
Having been there most Fridays when the Cafe is open, I can testify that there are a wide variety of faces that get in and they come from every cross-section of the student body.
Not only that, but any student who gets a reservation gets to bring a guest who also meets the criteria (no absences, no disciplinary referrals) so it is actually more than just a teacher selecting the attendees.
There must be something I am missing in your post because I can’t understand why you have such a problem with positive reinforcement.
If we accept your premise that behavior which is acceptable should get no reinforcement, then we have to resign ourselves to a system which gives the most attention to the most disruptive students and no attention to the least disruptive students - after all, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do and we should not reward that, right?
I don’t know where in Kentucky you were reared, but it must have been a gloomy place where nobody is told “Well done!” when they score the winning touchdown or congratulated on their engagement, graduation or the birth of a baby. After all these are all things people are supposed to do.
I also would submit that this isn’t a sales contest because kids are not sales people and if anything they and their parents are now consumers more than ever and we have to, as educators, develop more and varied ways of marketing what should be a given in good education, but sadly isn’t.
The Hard Work Cafe is simply a way to spot our kids doing something right and give them a tangible positive reinforcement for it.
I like your writing and encourage you to keep doing it. Some educator somewhere must have made an impression on you about the power of interesting structure and use of parallelisms.
The only thing I suggest is that before you bash something like the Hard Work Cafe, perhaps you should call us and ask if it is, in fact, just set up for teachers’ pets instead of assuming so.
Good day and good luck!
James Ellis
Hi James,
I wasn’t trying to bash the Hard Work Cafe. I was giving my opinion of the premise behind it.
I’ll try to go down thru your very thoughtful comment and answer your concerns as I come to them, but let me begin by saying thanks for stopping by and for taking time to comment.
Let’s begin by saying I understand the culture in the area, as I have roots in Evarts, in Harlan Co., have friends in Olive Hill and had a good friend marry a young lady from Louisa.
I did most of my growing up in Earlington, a town of about 2500 people and yes, it was very gloomy, yet very empowering.
When I was born, we had one electric light, with one plug for another cord on it. We didn’t have indoor plumbing. We had cracks in the wooden floor big enough see thru and cardboard and newspapers on the wall and they weren’t for reading.
I was given to my 19 year old father at birth, in 1963, by a mother who didn’t want a child and left. He died 18 months later and I was raised by his mother, my grandmother.
We had 2 rooms when I was born and 5 when I joined the Army at 18. Not bedrooms, rooms.
You probably have that many bedrooms alone.
A coal stove and coal oil lamps are a bit gloomy too, when you get right down to it. Maybe it’s the smoke and smudge they give off and leave behind.
No car and one store within walking distance doesn’t make for a varied diet. Beans, cabbage, corn bread and every now and then, a piece of meat. Fish when the ponds weren’t froze over.
12 years of qualifying for free lunch and living well below the poverty line make one want to excel, not a few minutes in an exclusive cafe.
It was a wee bit embarrassing that the school system made me give a number to a worker to get a free lunch, while the child behind me heard me giving it, while they readied themselves to pay with real money.
Lee Trover Todd, the current President of the University of Kentucky grew up right down the road a piece. He didn’t belong to an exclusive cafe club, he excelled just because it was the right thing to do too and because he wanted to contribute, excel and expand his horizons. Seems like it worked for him, as he led the graduating class of less than 25.
You say you told your teachers that it was not supposed to be a situation where they reserved a spot for their favorite child each week and sent them to lunch and lounge in luxury while everyone else trudged through the regular cafeteria.
What’s the chances that you circumvented human nature ? What’s the chances that your teachers are not subject to being just like you and I, who have favorites among the people we associate with every day.
I’ll answer that for you. Your chances are incredibly slim to none. There’s never been an educator who deals with kids that age that doesn’t have a favorite or two. It’s virtually impossible. Now, that doesn’t mean they act upon that fact, but to not act would be very unusual.
The students who win this reward get to bring another student with them. Who do they bring ? Their friends. Their favorites. Human nature again. When some of them grow up to be educators, that same human nature will cause them to have favorites then too.
I’m all for positive reinforcement, but not when it excludes kids, especially kids this age and some of them may have factors that they can’t control, like asthma, which kept my wife from having perfect attendance in school.
Or maybe they didn’t have any clean clothes to wear and didn’t want to wear the same dirty pair of jeans for the 4th or 5th day in a row, like I had to do several times over the years, when I was that age and had one pair of pants and our washing machine was broke. Is that fair to those kids ? No sir, it’s not. Is there a possibility that that can be happening right now in Louisa ? Yes sir, it’s very possible and highly likely.
You wonder if the premise that behavior which is acceptable should get no reinforcement and I say that’s not what I said, I just don’t think it’s right to exclude kids for factors of which they have no control.
You put me, a 44 year old man up against another man and I’m big enough and in control of my destiny enough to accept defeat and victory the same.
Those kids can’t always fight on a level playing field and you, sir, are teaching them that it’s okay to be exclusive in their lives, rather than everybody being equal.
I’m thinking that Jesus wouldn’t be in the HWC, he’d be in the regular lunchroom, with those that were left behind.
In a way, the HWC is a bit elitist and promotes separation rather than togetherness.
Have you guys taken God out of the schools, like they have our judicial system ? If so, then you won’t be familiar with the Biblical blueprint that says you do right and let God give the rewards, if He chooses to do so, but if he doesn’t, you do right anyway, not for the rewards of doing right, but because it’s what you do, because He said so.
If those kids learn and are trained to only do right for the rewards, God help them when they hit the working world, because it won’t be like that out there.
I did 12 years in the Kentucky educational system. I’m only 44 and remember what it was like to not be from the right side of the tracks.
I have 3 daughters, 23, 22 and 19 and their grandmother, my wife’s mother, was a school nurse for approx 30 years.
I’m quite familiar with the school system and I’m quite familiar with raising children.
I’m also one of the owners of a company that employs hundreds of men and women and have to deal, every day, with people raised in the educational system in Kentucky.
Personally, if they’d been taught that you do your best, each and every day, instead of being taught that you just do enough to get by, my life would be easier and their’s would be more profitable.
James, I’m really not against the HWC, I’m just more for teaching kids that you do right because it’s right, not for a reward.
Thanks for the comment and feel free to comment some more and I hope I haven’t offended you or any of the fine people there, as I’m not trying to.
I will bet, though, that I’m not the only voice of dissent about this practice.
Think about it James, how many times in your life have you done right just because it was what you were supposed to do ? Did you get a reward every time ? Nahhh. Did you do it in hopes of reward ? Nahhh. You did it because it was right and because that’s what Kentuckians do.
You and the other fine educators at LMS can come up with a different way to reward kids for doing right, but you and they would both be better off if you’d find a way for them to get rewards for going way above and beyond what’s right, not for just doing what they were supposed to do.
Rewarding a child for doing what they were supposed to do leads them down the wrong road.
Teaching them to do right and not expect any reward will make them more likely to succeed.
If you choose to continue this practice and I’m sure you will, how about having them take a child along for the ride who had no chance of getting there without them, so they can learn to reach down and carry a brother or sister who needs them, rather than a favorite ? Seems to me both of those kids would be better off and your community would too.
Seems like it would give those kids a taste of what they could achieve and would instill a bit of hope.
If you raise a generation of helpers and carriers, your community will be a shining light for the world to see.
By raising a batch of kids who do whats right and it separates them from their neighbors, well sir, you’ve missed the boat and they’ll want the boat to be given to them just for doing their jobs.
Your choice, my friend.
You can teach them how to carry those that need a friend, teach them how to raise up those who need a lift, you can teach them that excellence will allow them to share their gifts with the world or you can teach them to separate.
May God bless your choice and those that make the decisions for the generations that follow.
Mike,
Thanks for posting my original comment and replying. I appreciate the thoughtful content and the blessings. I and all others with me in eastern Kentucky need them.
I think you’re presuming that the HWC is the only sort of character education we do at LMS and that is faulty. We do teach about doing right for right’s sake.
I also have to ply my trade at Lawrence County High School and especially at that level I emphasize that right is its own reward. I even built an entire student club around that concept and that club has been to New Orleans twice to do relief work for hurricane victims and gotten nothing except cuts, bruises and a bagful of stinky clothes out of it - except that beautiful internal reward of having done something for someone else.
You and I obviously agree on a lot of things, Mike. But we’ll continue to disagree about what the HWC does for kids here at LMS.
The difference is I ahve the experience of having been there every week and I have data as well. No child has been a visitor more than three times so far this year and every child in this school has had the opportunity at a reservation.
I just can’t find anything elitist in that.
If, out of 18+ weeks, I’d found even one name that popped up nine times on our list of attendees I’d have been alarmed and contacted the teacher who made the reservation.
But it just isn’t happening and we keep careful records of this for the reasons you’ve highlighted.
We don’t want to set up an elitist situation because we have a community that is mired in poverty and has no company like yours employing its citizens.
I grew up in a home where my parents made less than $9,000 per year when I was in high school and I went to Berea College to get my education because it was the one fine institution that didn’t care that I had no money. All they wanted was my efforts.
That is the same sort of spirit we’re creating here through efforts like the HWC.
It is funny that we even call it that because the pun is lost on most of our students because most of them have never been to an actual Hard Rock Cafe.
Heck, for many a trip to our brand new Wal-Mart (we never had one til this Sepember) is as good as it gets.
Anyway, I wasn’t just being polite when I said I enjoy what I’ve read of your writing. Being a writer myself, it has to have something interesting in it or I would simply pass it by to read other far more mindless stuff on the net.
We are always looking for opportunities to bring successful people here to speak to our kids and I would invite you to come and do so and visit our Hard Work Cafe some afternoon.
Mike, I look forward to reading more of your posts and have you bookmarked now even though I found you quite by accident.
My prayers are with you and your employees and all associated. Keep making people think - you do it well.
Sincerely,
James Ellis
One additional thing, the perfect attendance rule only applies week by week. You could have missed nine weeks of school due to a chronic illness or some catastrophe, but if you’re there five days in one week and you’ve put in the biggest effort in the class and haven’t gotten in trouble, you’ve got a shot to go.
And as far as taking God out of school goes, I think ours is one of the few districts where I can pretty safely introduce biblical principals tactfully and not worry about reprisal.
By the way, I might introduce the idea to our principal of having an occasional chance for those who never got a reservation to get some sort of experience by being invited by someone who has a reservation. It will be interesting to hear the discussion that provokes.
Again, thanks for replying and I plan to keep reading consistently.
James
Hi James,
I’m glad you came back and brought more info. Info that I had no knowledge of and info that makes me feel much, much better than I previously did, about HWC.
I still think you’re missing a chance to kick it up a notch on the effectiveness scale by not having them take a child with them who may never get there without the helping hand.
I’ll say this, if you ever make that change, I’ll make an appointment to be there to see the first group of them who are there by the grace of God and a helping hand, or as soon as I can get there after that.
I’m gonna think long and hard James, about calling you and driving over to talk with your kids, but, to be honest sir, I’m getting tears in my eyes now just thinking about those kids and getting them to where I am now, so talking to them about it would be really tough for me.
I appreciate you coming back and I look forward to more of your comments.
God Bless and keep you and those kids.
Thanks Mike.
E mail me at ************ and we can exchange numbers if you have any inclination to come talk with our kids.
They need to meet and speak with successful people as much as possible in order to get bits of the blueprint I cannot provide.
Thanks again for the communications.
James
EDIT - I removed James’ email address to protect him from SPAM bots.
I’ll do that James.
Thanks again for adding to the conversation around here.
Mike
Mike,
For a salesman, you strike me as being a little pessimistic here. What I’d like to read is a post where you tell us you went there and observed the Hard Work Cafe for yourself. And looked at the data James mentions.
Oh, and I’d like to send a shout out to Middletown elementary school where I spent 5th & 6th grades including a memorable field trip riding the Belle of Louisville.
Merry Christmas, Mike.-)
I’m sure it looks and sounds that way Glenn. Sorry if it does.
I’m planning a trip there, sometime after the new year and before they let out for the summer.
BTW - I love Middletown !
The “old” section is so beautiful and the “new” has everything you’d need.
Our Louisville location is located there, just off the Snyder.