Barry Schwartz has written a fascinating commentary for The New York Times questioning whether or not the city should be offering its public school children cash rewards for good behavior.

To paraphrase Schwartz’s (accurately I hope), financial incentives undermine the intrinsic value of education. That is, entering self-interest into the education equation will diminish the more desirable motivation, that is, learning for the sake of learning. In fact, Schwartz cites evidence to support his case and makes a compelling case.

But while Schwartz argues effectively that extrinsic interests (financial incentives) undermine intrinsic interests, he never establishes why we should think of education’s intrinsic values as their most important ones.

To put this another way. Many of us who are education, especially those of us who love education, see it as something enjoyable in itself. Those moments I call “ah ha!” moments are among the most profound a human being can experience. But there are plenty of other functions of education outside of self-fulfillment. Professional, Technical and Vocational education is a thriving industry and testifies to the extrinsic value of education.

Schwartz never explains why we would place the intrinsic values above the extrinsic ones. While the former maybe the most enjoyable, the latter my be the most important. After all, how are we going to enjoy self-fulfillment without basic know how.

The problem for New York City schools is well beyond teaching its students the inherent worth of a life of learning. It’s having trouble just teaching its students how to get by. In this environment, appealing to self-interest is a welcome change. However, it may be more welcome if they would change the curriculum to be more meaningful to students’ everyday lives … even if that means making it (gasp!) more vocational.