The A+ Activist

We all bribe our kids from time to time. Don’t lie. You do it, I do it - even educated bees and fleas do it (ok maybe not but I’ve always needed to work that into a conversation).

My point is this: With all the bribery we are doing, is it absolutely necessary for schools to do it too? A study out of Standford University found that by creating incentives for kids to do things like read, come to school, behave, get good grades and so on. The rewards vary from cash, mp3 players, and other gifts. The study was done after charter schools realized that many public K-12 school districts already do this with some success.

Our school does something with what is called the Accelerated Reader Program. In which kids read approved books for points, take quizzes on them and then at the end of the grading period or year, the points are totaled and those kids are rewarded. I don’t necessarily have a problem with it because at my house we pay for good grades… and I will explain the pros and cons of that in a different post. However…

First of all, these are things that kids are supposed to be doing anyway? I mean, is school so bad that they have to pay them to come to school in the first place? And if so, How are they involving the parents in the reward systems? To pay kids to behave, (I think) sends the message that “as long as you’re good, we’ll keep doling out the prizes. But slip up and we take that gift away.” Kids have bad days. I know that in the case where there are children who are “prone” to behavior issues, the idea of gifting them into behaving well seems good but what happens when the kids are out of school and are no longer required to deliver such monetary or valuable praise in the form of gifts? What do those kids do then?

I think that if schools are going to offer such incentives (and perhaps they do, I can’t speak for all schools) but if they do offer pay for grades and incentives to do the basic things students are expected to do in school to begin with, there has to be a teaching value that goes along with it and parents should be heavily involved in it.

The sad fact is that over time, kids expect to be rewarded for their “goodness” and without those rewards they may feel like since they aren’t being praised in a tangible way, there is no point in doing what is expected of them. They come to find that the real world doesn’t work that way. Millions of people get up, go to work, behave all day long and they aren’t rewarded. Housewives and moms do the work of ten people in a day and there is little to no reward beyond a hug or kiss from those around them (if it’s a good day and her loved ones noticed she cleaned/washed/cooked).

Too many rewards, I believe set the kids up to expect them and they will be disappointed when they get into the real world. They will have jobs that are virtually thankless though they do what is expected and required - day in and day out.

How do we prepare them for that?

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