Money = Good Grades? Options

[JlIaTMK]

Hm, so about a week ago in my second hour class, there was this boy talking about how he receives money for getting all B's in school. He also mentioned that he gets 10 dollars for each b he received and that if he received an a, he would get 20 dollars for that one grade.
Now, seriously, parents have to bribe their kids nowadays to get them to get b's and a's in school?
How piteous is this?

Please share your opinions.

[fameONE]

If the parents have moeny to spare then by all means they should do it. I believe that its a wonderful motivator to succeed in life. If you're promised a handsome bit of cash every six weeks just for good grades, then why would you intentionally become complacent and not take advantage of the opportunity?

I've been working since I was 15 years old. Actually, I've been working more than most kids at that age should while going to school and being involved in countless clubs and orgnizations. My parents never rewarded me for good grades. At times they could have, but, for the most part, they didn't. My monetary motivation was getting into a good school, qualifying for scholarships that had nothing to do with my race, doing well in college and graduating to lead a successful life.

My parents are forcing me to 'go on a leave of absence' from my job so I can focus on school during the first semester. With this, anything that can't be taken care of on campus through my general tuition, they will pay. No, I didn't get 200 dollars for straight As. But thats ok, my parents are going to have my back for a few semester so I don't epitomize the "broke college student."

[Spirited Away]

If the parents have moeny to spare then by all means they should do it.  I believe that its a wonderful motivator to succeed in life. If you're promised a handsome bit of cash every six weeks just for good grades, then why would you intentionally become complacent and not take advantage of the opportunity?

I'm sure some, if not most of you, have heard of such a thing as intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Money is an extrinsic reward.

While it's true that most of us are focused on the extrinsic rewards of life as it appeases our physical needs, it is actually the intrinsic rewards that gives us peace of mind and the "warm-fuzzies" that help us retain our sanity in a world of insanity. The Job Market and our work place is, or can be, such a world.

What one is taught by receiving money for every good grade is that one can expect some kind of return for a job well done. Is that true for everything in life? Hell no. In fact, sometimes the good that you do may cause bad things to happen. Then what? Where's your reward?

What happens if parents can no longer afford to give the money a child has been habittually receiving for getting good grades? Some children may be indifferent, others disappointed, but there will be a number who will react quite strongly, perhaps to a point of boycotting good grades until the reward is met.

When someone is conditioned to expect a reward for everything he/she does a good job on, he/she is bound to have a big let down, if not several, in life.

And believe it or not, it's been proven that extrinsic rewards will make light of and distract you from intrinsic rewards. When this happens, what is there to drive your motivation? Imagine that your only motivation to live is for money....

I am speaking of rather extreme cases, but that is what happens when kids are brought up to love extrinsic rewards.

[fameONE]

I'm sure some, if not most of you, have heard of such a thing as intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Money is an extrinsic reward.

While it's true that most of us are focused on the extrinsic rewards of life as it appeases our physical needs, it is actually the intrinsic rewards that gives us  peace of mind and the "warm-fuzzies" that help us retain our sanity in a world of insanity. The Job Market and our work place is, or can be, such a world.

What one is taught by receiving money for every good grade is that one can expect some kind of return for a job well done. Is that true for everything in life? Hell no. In fact, sometimes the good that you do may cause bad things to happen. Then what? Where's your reward?

What happens if parents can no longer afford to give the money a child has been habittually receiving for getting good grades? Some children may be indifferent, others disappointed, but there will be a number who will react quite strongly, perhaps to a point of boycotting good grades until the reward is met.

When someone is conditioned to expect a reward for everything he/she does a good job on, he/she is bound to have a big let down, if not several, in life.

And believe it or not, it's been proven that extrinsic rewards will make light, distract you, from intrinsic rewards. When this happens, what is there to drive your motivation? Imagine that your only motivation to live is for money....

I am speaking of rather extreme cases, but that is what happens when kids are brought up to love extrinsic rewards.

Bravo on the response

Thats when parents have to further analyze the situation. Of course parents should reinforce good behavior and a job well done with some sort of 'reward,' whether it be cash or a simple, "I'm proud of you," or else a job well done will go unrecognized (as it does many times in life).

A parent's perspective from the shortterm standpoint (so my mother tells me) is that a child gets so caught up in doing a good job and expecting a reward that when the reward is taken away and the good job continues, then they'll have acquired the necessary work ethic to make it in life.

Conversely, it could blow up in parents faces (as you mentioned earlier), with children being so ungrateful to expect a reward for doing a good job. Mipadi seemed to be implying that a good job doesn't warrant a financial reward in the real world. Financially, it may not.

It also all depends on the child and how they'll deal with such a thing. Some children may miss the point entirely and just do work because they expect something. Others will understand the importance of working hard and doing a good job and maybe, just maybe, they'll have an acquired work ethic.

[Spirited Away]

Bravo on the response

Thats when parents have to further analyze the situation. Of course parents should reinforce good behavior and a job well done with some sort of 'reward,' whether it be cash or a simple, "I'm proud of you," or else a job well done will go unrecognized (as it does many times in life).

A parent's perspective from the shortterm standpoint (so my mother tells me) is that a child gets so caught up in doing a good job and expecting a reward that when the reward is taken away and the good job continues, then they'll have acquired the necessary work ethic to make it in life.

Conversely, it could blow up in parents faces (as you mentioned earlier), with children being so ungrateful to expect a reward for doing a good job. Mipadi seemed to be implying that a good job doesn't warrant a financial reward in the real world. Financially, it may not.

It also all depends on the child and how they'll deal with such a thing. Some children may miss the point entirely and just do work because they expect something. Others will understand the importance of working hard and doing a good job and maybe, just maybe, they'll have an acquired work ethic.

First, thank you. You humble me since I think you're a great debator yourself.
Yes, I've taken into account that different children will react in different ways. I've also talk to my mother about this problem of rewarding children many times because she believes, to my persistent denial, that she may not live to teach me such things later. She says what works best with raising me may not work with raising my own children, a tactic I considered using on my future children since coming of age.

The sad thing that we all have to realize is that not all parents are as attentive to their children, and so the case may be that they will not know what 'works' and what doesn't. These said parents will feed their kids all the money they can and when they can't, society (that's the rest of us) have to put up with the consequences. Such consequences may be trivial or they may be extreme.

So, I still believe that the best way to go about this is mixing up instrinsic and extrinsic rewards but put more weight into the intrinsic ones. If the child responds negatively, highly unlikely, then we may do a switcheroo and see how that works. However, to rid the child's education of the higher rewards in life altogether is to condition him/her to a life of base physical, tangible needs. No better than an animal. A walking, talking animal.

Again, pretty extreme, but there are pretty extreme people in our society.