Now, not every student is going to be like me. I have seven siblings and they were not all good students. They were all bright, but they didn’t all apply themselves. Not sure if they just didn’t want to, didn’t see the point, or purposely wanted to rebell.

Depending on the child, I can see how it can be beneficial to incentivize good grades. In order to get a low performing or uninterested child to participate more in school, sometimes drastic measures (a.k.a. bribing) may be in order.

It’s important for children to understand the intrinsic value of studying and achieving rather than being taught that only the things you get paid for are worth doing. Monetary rewards may be motivating in the short term, but if they are overdone, it could result in the expectation of monetary reward for other efforts and less motivation when the possibility of monetary rewards is not present.

I was never paid for grades but I knew what I would get if I brought home failing grades. My father wore it around his waist to hold his pants up…

saladdin

Growing up we never got paid for grades, I was the child who always had A’s and never had to be told to do her homework. For me it was simple and fun. My sister on the other hand had the opposite experience, and even the best of report cards for her had only half A’s on it. My parents knew it was harder for her, and never wanted to reward me when (honestly) she was often the one who worked harder and achieved less success. So it’s not so simple as a money for grades situation. How to do it when I have my own children, I still don’t know.

I am adamantly against paying for chores – because regular chores around the house are one’s contribution to the family. You help out and clean up after yourself as a matter of good hygiene and consideration for others.

The one thing they did different was, they made me create budget with my money. When I got paid for the months worth of good grades, house work, gifts, etc. I had to apply it to my budge.. 50% goes to savings, 30% goes to new items(toys, cloths.. anything my parents wouldn’t buy), 10% goes to a charity, and 10% goes in my pocket(for candy…)

I had a bank register, that I had to keep up with.

This was great.. sucked at times.. but when I wanted something big.. I knew I had to save up for it! It helps start my saving habit.. and prevents me from splurging too much now!

Like some of the other posters, I disagree that doing well at one’s job equals better pay. That’s how it should work, but all too often it does not. I find that I am quite motivated by my boss actually saying, “Atta boy,” than I am by getting a 4% raise. I am motivated to work hard to please others (and myself) and not so much because there is money at the end of the road.

It’s not clear from the post, but one could certainly argue from what was written that the incentive failed to continue to work since he only got 100% on “trivial” tests later. Surely he could have worked harder on some easy but non-trivial tests to get the prize?

Master Phu confuses “better” with more money, which is exactly what he learned (one could argue) from the money incentive in grade school. I have had great jobs that paid next to nothing, and crappy jobs that paid TONS of money. Guess which one I would rather work?

An analogy to this discussion is that when training dogs, you start by making them work for treats, and transition them to working for praise. You can’t bring food into a competition obedience ring.

Ultimately, it seems to me that if we show our kids that education is all about money, then they will “value” education as a means to make money. I would rather try to get my kids to see education as a means to better oneself in any number of ways, one of which might be to increase income, and have them work hard for this sake, rather than following the money.

As for attention, I wholeheartedly agree, the attention was also there but buttressed with the incentive. I think that it’s that lack of attention that has left a lot of students today with a poor academic experience.

#2. Your mom started with small and rational incentives. $1 per spelling test is reasonable.

I never got paid for grades, but when mom and I would work really hard on ways to make sure I read the numbers in math correctly, and I started building coping skills for test taking, she was always excited.

I have always been smart- its just hard with letters and numbers and the order of those. Senior year I was in physics, it was super hard to figure out elements and remember chemical compounds because they are nonsensical letter combinations but I understand the principals and knew how to do everything. After crying to my mom because of my bad grades she talked to the teacher and I took the tests after school, alone with her and she and I would talk though all the equations so I made sure I saw them correctly.

Thats why I am a good student, because my parents cared and taught me there was always a way and to be honest when you are having difficulties. Your mom cared about how you did in school- just showed it differently in a different situation.

Attention is what matters.

As adults we are expected to do our job when we go to work, and if we don’t, yes we get fired. Part of us getting paid is performance on our job, which consists of more than just brains, it also consists of working with others, doing our best, and being a part of the team.

I have to say my parents never paid me, and never paid for my schooling, and I still have a value of what education can do.

As a parent I want my kids to know that education is very important and will definately open many doors for them, however it has to be in there interest to want to do well, not just mine. I don’t see how money can make them see education as valuable.

I think knowing they do a good job, are doing well, and giving it there best shot. That is all I can really ask, not every kid is going to get an A, and if they tried really hard for there C they still would get no reward for it. I don’t see how this would be a rewarding idea considering we are all different,(and not everyone is capable of getting straight a’s) and that the only goal here is an “A” not hard work, or ethics, just an A.

Some children are intrinsically motivated to do well. I was this child. I got good grades because I liked to. I’m also the adult that works very hard at my job with no real money benefit for putting in more than the bare minimum effort. However, many people aren’t like this. Heck yes, reward kids for doing well in school with a reward almost all of us can understand, money.

Working Rachel – It depends on the type of job you’re going for. In my industry (hedge funds) employers will only take entry-level applicants that have a 3.5 GPA from a Top 10 University. So grades do translate to a better job (better in this case the highest paying).

Therefore, I think that if you were to set up incentives with your kids, the most important thing is to make sure that the structure is clear and you stay to your word. Also, it may be helpful to make it a challenge or a game so that the first time your child reaches his/her goal, you challenge him/her to a higher goal. For example, maybe two 100s will receive a reward instead of one. Also, I have found that if you reinforce these incentives with the idea that they are making you proud by what they are doing, you can eventually phase out these incentives.

By the way, I’m Jim’s sister and I don’t think I ever got $1 for a 100! (Though, I was always a better student……*wink*)