<p>This is a question that came up in my English class before class started. There is a student in this class who proudly said she was going to talk to the dean about this class because she is not doing good in it and it was gonna effected her perfect 4.0 gpa. I was of the line of thinking that if the class was harder than you thought you need to work harder to get better grades because add/drop period has passed. I am not sure what she thinks the dean can do about the class for her. At any rate, she told us her parents bribed her in high school get perfect grades get any new car you want. 3 years later in college (she is almost done) they have given her the same bribe.</p>
<p>I never got that in high school from my parents and neither has anyone else I know. I thought the reward for doing good was graduating and being able to get a great job. Since when is bribery a good way to get kids to get the grades you want.</p>
<p>What is other parents opinion on this subject.</p>
<p>I’m a senior studying for his last finals, and I will tell you bribery would never fuel kids (most of them) through high school. I’m sure you know, but grades aren’t the greatest thing. They really hinder true learning. If you are looking for ways to motivate kids like me, it’s not really that hard. Make sure you know what we are interested in, do a little research (what its about, opportunities, ways to share the interest), and edge us on to explore and challenge ourselves. Also, make sure we know even in failure, we will be supported.
If a person truly challenged himself/herself, I don’t think they’d receive a perfect GPA. Trust me, truly challenging yourself doesn’t mean just taking what’s offered. It means finding that thing that you are surly to fail, but are willing to do it b/c its fun and challenging. For me, however, only taking things that are visibly offered is my limit (my GPA is a total mess). But, I really challenged myself and I am pretty proud that my English isn’t BAD. I was in and out of ESL before HS. Now I am taking AP. I’ll probably get a B, or even a C. But, I learn to write WAY faster when I’m pushed hard.</p>
<p>EDIT: just in case it wasn’t clear, I forgot to say I am a HS senior.</p>
<p>Yep, we gave him money for good grades. Not a huge amount but enough to make him anxious for those report cards. We never considered it bribery but reinforcement of our opinion that while he was a student, school work was his “job”.</p>
<p>Before my first kid started school, I made the decision that there would never be money for grades – based mainly on the fact that kid #2 would be following him a few years later, and I had no way of knowing whether their academic ability would be similar or different. I didn’t want to create a situation that might promote bad feelings between them.</p>
<p>So I ended up promoting bad feelings against me instead. Apparently, all their friends’ parents gave out bribes for grades, some all the way through high school. They felt cheated.</p>
<p>I never got bribed pre-college. I didn’t care that other people did either. I figured that if their parents were that desperate, then they had to work harder for good grades. And I wasn’t especially bribable…I would have been happy with gift certificates for books and (in high school) CDs, but there were other circumstances under which I could get those, and there wasn’t much else I wanted.</p>
<p>In college, I had to work a lot harder for my grades, and for the first couple of terms my mom tried the big carrot if you jump through the hoop/big stick if you don’t approach. I didn’t actually like this much.</p>
<p>I tried “Pay for A’s” once a few years ago. They lit up their eyes when we first discussed it, and then they went back to their old habits. I think most motivation comes from within; at work we dangle carrots in front of our sales people all the time, and only the most internally motivated consistently excel. Many people are motivated by money, but that alone is not sustainable.</p>
<p>From my experience, there is no way, bribery or not, to make somebody improve their grades. If they do not have thier own incentives, they will not do it. On the other hand, birbery has been very successful tool in our family to control a behavior of a very young child and develop good habits. That has worked much better than punishment. The third point, not only I do not believe in bribery for grades or any other accomplishments, my kids never had a penny of allowance $$.</p>
<p>They get punished for not getting As, it works too. They could get out of not being punished if they could do a very good powerpoint presentation on why they fell short.</p>
<p>My parents are a different matter. If they hear any grandchildren getting an A they’ll immediately whip out their wallet. My kids have received upward of $100 for getting an A.</p>
<p>I’m not a parent and I’m spending way too much time in these forums (this is what happens when to kids not in school and waiting for admissions decisions). But this reminds me of a guy from my school a few years back who went to MIT and majored in, I think, aerospace engineering. Scary thing is, he was the second son - his elder brother got his degree in EE and a PhD in Econs from MIT in four years!</p>
<p>Bribery works wonders. We paid a couple dollars for each good grade. Son’s teachers would sometimes give a dollar if someone could answer a hard question. Isn’t that what school awards are though? Get good grades and you will get awards and scholarships. That is a kind of bribery.</p>
<p>I think I should clarify what I just said. I don’t think a college student needs any bribery but it did work during grade school and middle school.</p>
<p>Well, for us non-bribery worked wonders also. D. graduated at the top of her HS class. She mentioned couple times that some kids are getting paid for good grades, but she was smart enough to follow with the statement that she understands that every family is different. We also asserted to her and repeated many times that we are commited to help her financially all the way thru Graduate School. We never refused to pay for her trips abroad and staff like that. We told her that she fully deserved it and we really appreciate her academic and other efforts which also resulted in an awesome Merit $ and job position at college. </p>
<p>Everybody situation is unique, it is hard to advise or compare.</p>
<p>My parents tried bribery on her sons. If it had any effect at all it made things worse by sending the message “You can’t do on your own.” Might work better on daughters, though we haven’t tried.</p>
<p>The best way to have a child get the grades you want is to have a self-motivated, self starting kid who wants to learn for the sake of learning as well as to improve him or herself. Since I didn’t get any of those kids, I resort to bribery. I figure that school is their job. On my job, if I perform exceptionally well, I get a very nice merit bonus. The reward I give my kids for good grades is akin to a merit bonus, IMO. I would not offer something very valuable (like a car) for perfection (like a cumulative 4.0 over 4 years) because I think that could backfire very easily by the child either not taking a rigorous courseload, focusing on grades to the exclusion of all else (including real learning) or giving up the first time it became apparent that the perfect 4.0 was not going to happen. I do offer smaller, but still motivating, rewards in the short term (each semester).</p>
<p>We have not gone down the bribery route - but will celebrate successes on an irregular basis - e.g. so it is not expected but rather a pleasant surprise. </p>
<p>I have emphasized from the time they got into high school that good grades keep doors open - and lesser grades will result in doors closing. </p>
<p>Both kids have been in the top 5% of their class while taking a challenging course load so it seems to be working out OK.</p>
<p>Bribery is offering the reward before the behavior occurs. Reinforcement is offering it after the behavior occurs and is far more effective in shaping behavior. And there is a good deal of social science evidence (see Carol Dweck’s work) that the really important thing is to reinforce effort–not the results (reinforcing good grades, versus hard work can shape kids to become avoidant of challenge and risk and overtime can effect both values and outcomes and decrease motivation)</p>