Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnee123
Knowing what I know about you...don't you love learning for the sake of learning? I was never compensated for my efforts as a kid, but there was a fair exchange of "if you did what you were supposed to do, yeah, I guess we can swing some money for you to go to the movies."
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I love learning for the sake of it, and I would not have been particularly motivated by financial reward as a kid ... I'm barely motivated by it as an adult :P
I was just pointing out the cultural trappings which surround our youngsters. We live in an intensely money oriented society. We expect children to grow up to appreciate that fact; it's what they will be expected to live by when they grow up.
Money as reward was never a part of my childhood. Pocket money was a factor; but it wasn't tagged to housework or schoolwork or anything like that. It was just something that came around every Friday.
They may well learn for the love of it ...but if they don't, then they're still stuck in the system learning: they don't get a choice in the matter. Some kids aren't motivated by a desire to learn. Or, rather aren't sufficiently motivated. Of course, it helps if stuff comes naturally. It helps if you're good at learning and schoolwork. Not everybody is. We make an equation in life between work and reward; but we expect children to accept that the reward is intrinsic and get on with it. having surrounded them with that message, why not take advantage of the fact that some children have learned rather earlier that work is work and not play ? Once they've reached that conclusion it is very difficult to unlearn it.