Paying For Grades

Should schools pay students for good grades?

I’ve tried everything to motive my teen to get his schoolwork done and nothing seems to work. For a few years we even paid for grades. Our system was a system where we paid him for good grades and he paid us for bad grades. We paid $10 for As, $5 for Bs. Cs earned him nothing. He owed us $5 for every D and he owed us $10 for every F. We paid out at midterms and semester grades. It worked for a while, but eventually it was no longer a motivator. Eventually he lost interest.

So when I heard that some schools are paying kids for perfect attendance and good grades I was interested. How did it work for them?

There aren’t a lot of statistics yet, but it seems to be working in some districts. Teens are motivated by money. And technology. Getting good grades isn’t enough for them. They are too young to really understand how important good grades are. They don’t think of college as a requirement to get a good job. They think of it more as something their parents want them to do. But money and cell phones are things they can understand right now.

Many people think paying students for grades is bad because students should feel pride in doing a good job and their reward is a good grade. That sounds all fine and dandy in the mind of an adult who knows how important good grades are. I wish I could go back to high school and do a little better in some of my advanced placement classes. By senior year I was sick of school and started slacking. I skipped some classes to go out to lunch. I didn’t always do my homework. I had a bad case of senioritis. I have to wonder if I would have stuck with it if my school was offering me cash for good grades. I got college credit for my AP classes, but that didn’t seem to be enough to motivate me to do my best.

I’m happy that schools are coming up with creative ways to get students interested in school. Educators need to come up with new ways to keep students interested. They need to research new teaching methods and new rewards. Cash and cell phones are a good start. But schools will need to continue to come up with new ideas so kids don’t lose interest.