Schools have, for years, used poster-boards with children's name on them, with columns in which sticker stars are placed. When children do something good, a star is added. Everyone always sees who has the most stars. We should do this with adults.
It could be a government run website that gives stars for recycling batteries, newspapers, tin cans, etc. You could also get stars for tutoring children who are struggling with reading in schools, or even adopting children.
Sure, people shouldn't do good behavior, JUST because they will get recognition, but that doesn't mean they should not get it.
People who don't care about recognition will keep doing it, and others will try and get the most stars. Another benefit of this, is socially concise people could date only those with 5 or more stars, if they wanted.
I think that these stars would be good goals to work for.-- myclob, Apr 01 2005 OK, I bun this idea, but only for adults. This practice in schools, do they really do that for all eyes to see? That's just sick.-- zeno, Apr 02 2005 in school i recall the smiley stamp and it would be liberally applied to the flesh of children who did not wash - thus forcing bathing to remove the little faces.-- benfrost, Apr 02 2005 perhaps, but I think growing up means you shouldn't need constant rewarding for doing the right thing.-- dentworth, Apr 02 2005 random, halfbakery