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Students who are truly able to self-govern don’t need a scholarship to encourage them to give up their phones, and a college seeking to develop self-governing adults shouldn’t pay its students to break bad habits.

That’s not what Elijah Guevara thinks. On September 3, in an article titled “Fund scholarships for phone-free students,” he argued that since most students struggle with phone addictions, it would be a good thing if the college offered a monetary incentive to help students kick the habit. 

The Honor Code that every student signs says that the crowning achievement of the Hillsdale education is to reach self-government. Students learn to be adults: to shoulder responsibility, become good citizens, and for some, to prepare for marriage and kids. We don’t need special incentives to put down our phones.

In his talk during freshman convocation, senior Nicholas Rutkoski spoke about how modern culture has lost the practice of doing a good thing simply for its own sake. Doing a good thing in itself is enough reward. Bags of money need not be waved in front of someone’s face to get him to do a good thing.

When adults face problems with addiction, whether it be drugs or alcohol or any other vice, they address these problems simply because they would rather live without those problems than with them. They are not paid to fix these behavioral disorders; in fact, most would pay other people to help them fix their problem. It should be no different for Hillsdale students.

Most scholarships awarded to students are merit scholarships. A merit scholarship from Hillsdale awarding students’ academic, athletic, or artistic achievements is not the same as the college rewarding them for a desired behavior. Merit scholarships reward outcomes, not possibilities. They do not change based on how many hours one studies or how hard one works. 

However, a scholarship that rewards students for going without their phones rewards a certain kind of behavior. And when it comes to changing behavior meaningfully, one must find the resolve to be virtuous. Waving money in front of someone for a period of time is not how you convince someone to change behavior. It’s just bribery.

If Hillsdale is an institution at which students learn to self-govern and become adults, then it would be best if its students were actually treated as adults. A scholarship that rewards students for getting rid of their phones treats students as children, not capable adults. 

Gabe Gerth is a freshman studying economics.