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By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
Sat Aug 12, 11:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Sure, learning is its own reward. But some kids respond best to cash. Andrew Waller's grades soared when his parents started offering $5 for A's and $4 for B's. Now he pockets about $25 each report card, saving it for video games and summer camp.
I think I would still be getting good grades, but this does help. I mean, it helps a lot, said Andrew, a 12-year old from Mobile, Ala. I think it's a great way to motivate me.
So you want your kids to get an A, eh? Are you willing to pay?
As children return to school, many parents are deciding what prize — if any — is appropriate to offer when kids get good grades. The stakes can get pretty high.
Reagan Hawkins, a high school teacher in Nederland, Texas, has had students tell him they will get a new car for A's. Their parents downgrade the deal to a used car if they get B's.
It disappoints me, honestly, Hawkins said. I try to instill a sense of intrinsic reward in the students. I'd rather see a student want to learn for the sake of learning than learn for the sake of a car.
Adults who promise money, gifts or privileges say their children study harder when incentives are on the table. The lesson they hope to teach is that rewards require work.
The trick is making sure that students develop a natural love of learning along the way. When the gift cards and iPods go away, students had better be able to motivate themselves.
It may be a little bit of bribery, but I'm sorry, I bribed my little one with M&Ms when we were doing potty training, said Dawn Waller, Andrew's mom and a former teacher.
I think everyone ought to be rewarded when they're doing something well, she said. For us, five dollars (for A's) was just the amount we could afford.
She and her husband, David, say their system is working.
Andrew proudly shares his math homework. Kathryn, his 8-year-old sister, talks of becoming a scientist. Even their 4-year-old brother, John Martin, behaves better when he knows he'll end up with a toy from the dollar store.
Nationwide, parents reward A's in all kinds of ways.
Children earn trips to the bookstore, the bowling alley or the ice rink. They get to stay up later, take a day off from chores, or move a TV into their room. Some get bragging rights, like having their report card displayed front and center on the fridge.
In Snellville, Ga., Marlyn Tillman refused to give her two sons cash for A's. That was over the line. Instead she gave them stickers at young ages, then trips out for ice cream.
By high school, she said, We have no rewards. You're shaping your own future at that point, and that absolutely is its own reward. It's your job and you're expected to do it.
Still, incentives come into play at home. For every half hour her 13-year-old wants to spend playing video games, he must spend an hour reading — and prove it with a book report.
In some homes, the perks fade when the grades do.
Some of Jessyca Tucker's students have had iPods taken away or been told they can't send instant messages to their friends online. It happened because they brought home C's or D's.
Tucker, who teaches middle school in Ramsey, N.J, likes to work with parents on ways to help their kids improve. Ultimately, though, parents set the rewards and punishments.
It is a real-world practice, she said of awarding bonuses for excellent work. But if you start it at a young age, it can take away from the value of learning — learning to become a more cultured person, someone who adds value to the world. It's a tough issue.
Reg Weaver used to gives his kids a dollar for each A. It's a personal choice, nothing wrong with that, said Weaver, president of the National Education Association.
His concern is that some children take gifts for granted.
I see little kids going into stores with cell phones, he said. You might say, 'I'll give you $5 for an A,' and the little kids will say, 'So?' They don't recognize how easy they have it. And as adults, we don't make it much better.
Even kid-friendly companies grant report-card rewards.
Krispy Kreme offers a free doughnut for each A (no more than six per student.) Crown Theaters gives out two free movie tickets for straight A's (all B's is worth a medium popcorn.) Sbarro recently offered kids a free pizza slice and a soda for good grades, if they said the secret phrase: A's and B's — pizza please!
The National PTA has no official position on rewards for grades. But it gives parents tips from Virginia Shiller, a clinical psychologist and author of Rewards for Kids!
Shiller suggests that rewards should be based on weekly progress, not long-term report cards. That forces parents to pay more attention to how their kids struggle and when they make small victories. The system ends up rewarding good study habits, not just good grades.
You can focus on the exchange of gifts and money, but it's really about the engagement, Shiller said in an interview. If you just hand out the cash, it won't help in the long run.
Credits: Yahoo! News
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oh yeaaa, i remember when my parents offered me 50 kuai to get A's in middle school ^^...
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oooh i used to get paid too... my dad gave me $100 for every A $30 for b's nothing for c's and below...
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^ damn wtf i coulda made me $700 if i had your dad...
my parents only gave me $10 for every A.. B and under I get nothing. uggghh
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^ haha I got $50 for getting straight A's each term. But $0 for anything other.
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my mom gave me money too if I got good grades,
but it didnt last long because I still got bad grades more often than good grades, so she stopped giving me money. hahah __'
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wow lucky people . i dont get like $50 for a 89% average. .
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I would have accumulated a whole lot of money if my parents paid for every A. But nope...they have never paid me for good grades. I don't think that it would have mattered in my case if they did or not, I would have still gotten good grades but a reward would have been nice.
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My mom offered to give me umm I don't exactly remember, I think it was 50 bucks for A's and I thought she wasn't alright. We only tried it once, then we don't want to do that anymore. I didnt have the interest, but I still want good grades though. I mean the parents already pay everything for the house, all the kids just have to go to school and earn good grade. In the future, you'll be reward for all the hard works eventually.
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i never got anything, except the absence of a lecture. most of my friends, asian and caucasian, got money. i got better grades then them too. too bad i was so motivated when it didn't count, ie pre-college.
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my sisters does it but they don't stick to it so i just stopped. it happens every year
now my parents...it happens like every other year? they'll be like oh nice grades i'll get you something.....nothing
that's like the end of it
but oh wells that was all in elem but yet my sisters are still saying that ohh i'll get/do something for you if you get this goal that we both agree on. my goal just gets lower and lower knowing they won't actually get to it
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o__O~ I get $10 for every A, and I have to pay my mom $10 for every grade thats a C and under. Of course, my As cancel out my Cs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .
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I never got anything for my grades except a Good job?
Damn you guys are lucky!
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i wish i got something for good grades... cuz all i got was a good job! from my parents... and then after that i just didn't care what i got since it didn't seem to do much whether i brought home a good report card.
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I have never gotten money for my grades whether they were good or not. I used to get hugs but I grew up so that stopped.
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it does work.
my dad promised my sister $100 for each A and $50 for each B.
she gets straight A's now. HAHA
poor daddy =*(
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wow lucky people . i dont get like $50 for a 89% average. .
i had a 93-95% average in high school, recieved no money from my parents...but it paid out in the end in college
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whoa i really like that idea! rewards require work. YUP! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
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wow..some of ya'll are lucky you even get money for good grades..why are you complaining? i NEVER got money, all i got was a pat on the back *cry*
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I'm getting my little brother braces as a way to make him motivated for schools. He's been wanting it for some time now. Every time he opens his mouth and see the braces, he should know that I'm paying for it and I'll stop payment if he performs unsatisfactorily. So if he wants nice teeth, do well in school. Take that parents!!
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Personally, I am against parents bribing their kids to get good grades. It disappoints me that parents have sunk so low they can't even get their kids to do well in school without bribes and it sickens me to find kids wanting material posessions for education... Just wrong I say...
