Every parent asks themselves the same old question: how do I make sure my child is a good person? To be honest, the answer is usually pretty boring. The experts will give you a long list of talking points on charity and selflessness and OMG, was that a yawn? You can try to teach your kid to be charitable by spending the day going through their closet to find stuff to donate to the local shelter ... or you could try what a school in Washington state is doing. They're torturing their students into being good citizens. Torturing them with Justin Bieber that is.
How, exactly, does one torture a bunch of teenagers into being better people?
Simple! The folks at Tenino High School play the Biebs' "Baby" during every break between classes, even at lunchtime. And they will continue assaulting students' eardrums with the Canadian's crooning until the kids make a $500 goal to help a school for orphans in Africa.
It's ... well, it's GENIUS!
The Biebs is torture to most sane people. My 8-year-old was a fan a few years ago when her hip hop class did a routine to one of his songs, but even she's come around to the point where she gags at the very mention of his name (she's a hardcore Selena fan, naturally). The first "You know you love me," and I know I'd be all, "Who do I write the check out to?"
So why not inflict this kind of torture on teenagers?
At the very least, it injects a little bit of fun into raising money ... which is exactly how you get kids involved.
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Listen, we play games with our kids for everything else, don't we? When they're toddlers, we sit in their playroom playing "who can put the toys away fast enough," and when they're 7 and can't stop jabbering, we play the "quiet game" to teach them sometimes it's better to just be silent, and when they're in school, teachers are always trying to turn learning into something fun to keep kids engaged.
Making charitable enterprises fun is simply another way to engage our kids ... and hopefully make lifelong givers out of them.
And it doesn't hurt to make high school a little more interesting.
What do you think of this high school's challenge for the kids?
Image via David Jones/Flickr