Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

...
When I was a kid all of us kids used to pick berries to pay for concert tickets. I'm not sure what kids do these days to earn money.

Hey little girl, did you hoard all of those nickels yourself?

No, my sister whored half of them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

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
~snip~
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.

I would posit you loved learning, not for the sake of it, but for the reward... the stimulation of your imagination and usefulness of the knowledge.
Whereas the money came without effort, every Friday.
If you had to earn the money, you might see the reward of pursuing it, but even now it comes as a result of pursuing what you want, and not it. Most people in the world don't have that option, and need the pursuit of money, or some equivalent, to survive. So it's not necessarily a bad thing to teach the children... in moderation, of course.

[classicman]

Please people .... think of the children!

[LovelyMaria]

Mission Hill said it best....

This is following Kevin French buying himself a gift for doing well in school....

Kevin French: I hope you're not like this during the parent/teacher interviews.
Andy French: Hello! Andy French. Couldn't care less about your future.
Kevin French: Mom and Dad said you have to do everything that they do.
Andy French: You don't live with Mom and Dad any more. I paid the electricity bill and I don't get a present.
[lights begin to flicker on and off]

Or you could punish your child by saying that you're going to the movies...only it isn't a movie as much as it is a torturous hour starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Lulz.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I would posit you loved learning, not for the sake of it, but for the reward... the stimulation of your imagination and usefulness of the knowledge.
Whereas the money came without effort, every Friday.
If you had to earn the money, you might see the reward of pursuing it, but even now it comes as a result of pursuing what you want, and not it. Most people in the world don't have that option, and need the pursuit of money, or some equivalent, to survive. So it's not necessarily a bad thing to teach the children... in moderation, of course.

That was similar to my original point. The adult world works on a model in which work=wages. Kids may well see a dissonance between that and the expectations put on them by adults.

I realise that actually, kids get all sorts from their parents and that it costs those parents tens of thousands of pounds/dollars to raise them; however, they are not usually a part of that equation. It isn't a negotiation like it is in the adult world. They have no choice but to go through education, and they are expected to throw themselves at it, regardless of whether they actually enjoy it or not; regardless of whether they are in fact willing; and regardless of whether or not they consider it 'work'. They are expected, for the most part, to exert their energies on tasks set them by an adult, for no reward other than which is intrinsic: love of learning/satisfaction/fun etc.

We then expect them to leave that situation and move into the adult world in which few work for free, and work is primarily a negotiated relationship. For some kids (I was one of these) that move is uncomfortable and a world in which work = reward is an alien concept. For others, being held in a situation where their work is expected and demanded but not compensated, may seem unfair and unreasonable when they can see through the window into an adult world, where work is negotiated and compensated.

Those kids who feel the dissonance when they are children may well benefit from being able to engage in an early form of work and reward negotiation.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hmmm

[xoxoxoBruce]

After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.

link

[Shawnee123]

:applause:

[SamIam]

When I was a child, it was do well at school or die. No exceptions. That seemed to work pretty well.

[Shawnee123]

Ha! Yeah...me too. No excuses (except for 8th grade Home Ec. Mom got that there was no way in hell I was going to sew a decent freaking apron and kerchief out of lovely pink gingham. I balanced out my first D with an A in shop.)

All it took was the "look" from Dad. Straightened right up, I did.

[classicman]

You mean discipline, shaw? Surely you jest.
Hell, parents today would be brought up on charges of child abuse if they did 1/2 the things our parent did.
I got broken cutting boards, yardsticks and wooden spoons to prove it.

[Shawnee123]

We giggled at my mom and her yardsticks, acquired at the county fair. Hahahahaa. She never hit us with it, I think she swatted our butts with it once, playing...and it broke! "Just wait til your dad gets home!"

Actually, it took the one act of discipline from my Dad...then all it took was the look.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Gimme 60 bucks and I'll answer this question.

girl can't help herself. tsk, tsk.

[Shawnee123]

Money motivates me to answer questions.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by classicman

You mean discipline, shaw? Surely you jest.
Hell, parents today would be brought up on charges of child abuse if they did 1/2 the things our parent did.
I got broken cutting boards, yardsticks and wooden spoons to prove it.

Cutting board? Damn that will knock your spine out of whack.