Bribing Children

I read an article that discussed a state legislative proposal to reward children for good grades with money. Get all A’s? Great, have some cash. Your tax dollars would be at work to raise the average GPA. (Quick thought: if it worked, and everybody started making A’s and B’s, would somebody start complaining about rampant grade inflation?) I listened briefly to a talking-heads back-and-forth (allegedly discussing the pros and cons) on TV. One guy suggested that this was a slippery slope, that the next step would be to pay people for obeying laws or acting moral. He might have a point, but there are already inducements to obey the law and act morally, namely prison and hell (or a similarly discordant plane of after-life).

My initial reaction to the story was a wince. This idea is so bad, it hurts. But then I started thinking, have I ever bribed my own children? Well, of course I have! When they were infants, there was the bribe of goodies to take their first steps. Later, I offered cash rewards if they would read a certain number of books over the summer. Do I still offer this? No. My point is, this bribery worked well for a few summers. And I understood that the thirst for reading was either going to take root quickly or it would never take root (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?).

And you know what, maybe some children don’t believe they can get good grades. Maybe the cash reward system will make them re-think their potential. My only caveat: just as I no longer pay my kids for reading, the cash for good grades should be limited to one or two years per student. If they don’t understand the benefits of good grades by then, if those study habits haven’t taken root, then the money would simply be going to helping a school’s collective GPA and test scores, which in the era of No Child Left Behind makes me wonder if that’s the underlying reason for this push. That is, pay the kids to make good grades so the school can stay in business to teach the kids. Ouch, my head hurts.