Sin Palabras – Love

Welcome to this weeks Sin Palabras! This week we’re celebrating El Amor (Love) and the many forms it comes in.

From Katherine Vargas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

El amor a los libros. I pledge to continue reading the printed word.

Does merit pay really increase teacher rentention?

educationviews.org

In an effort to keep teachers in classrooms longer especially in hard-to staff schools, many districts across the country are experimenting with incentive programs. But does offering teachers more money make them less likely to leave the profession? 

New conservative campaign targets legal immigration

When Newt Gingrich first revealed his “humane” vision for immigration reform, the base of his party (and a few of his primary rivals) attacked him for what they viewed as a soft stance. The former Speaker of the House fired back, calling GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney “anti-immigrant,” to which Romney memorably replied, “I’m not anti-immigrant. I support legal immigration.”

How do you motivate people…the answer isn’t money.

by Adriana Villavicencio

We know how it’s supposed to work: If you want people to perform better, reward them with bonuses, merit pay, and commissions while threatening them with negative consequences if they fail. Businesses rely on this system of carrots and sticks to work. But it doesn’t.

According to Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, there is a fundamental mismatch between what science knows and what business does. His work examines five decades of behavioral science that shows incentives don’t work in the way we think they do. And sometimes, they do exactly the opposite.  

Finding love in the Heights

Where do you look for love? Do you look in certain neighborhoods? Do you stay away from certain nationalities?

According to a new study, Washington Heights is the place to look for single guys in the city. There are over 26,000 single guys in that neighborhood, compared to over 16,000 single girls. However, some women are skeptical about this data.

Brazil’s beneficial dominance

by Eric Jude Cortes

Too often Latin American presidential elections have worked in the following way:

Candidate A: If I’m elected, I’ll bring the power back to you, the common people, and reject American dominance.

Candidate B: If I’m elected, I’ll work with American investors to bring jobs to our people, and help our businesses grow.

One candidate wins and either angers rich people, poor people, or the U.S., the other wins in the future, or one overthrows the other in a coup.