Monday, January 23, 2012
day 23 - report card
today was report card day for the middle school. caleb at some point during the weekend told both dave and i at different times that other kids in his class got paid for good grades - even as much as $40 per "A". although dave conceded to getting paid when he was growing up i on the other hand thought the idea was ridiculous.
great job caleb on your straight "A's" and no you will not be receiving any monetary compensation, or at least not yet :) i couldn't help but be curious about what other parents do in situations like this. thoughts?
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4 comments:
The Gil family does $100.00 for straight A's.
I agree that getting paid for grades seems ridiculous. I got mostly A's in school and didn't have to work very hard. My brother Joe got a mix of A's and B's with almost no work at all (he somehow managed to pull of a B in choir even though he rarely showed up). Paul got a mix of A's and B's and had to work really hard. Isaac doesn't get grades yet, but he has to work really hard to make any progress right now thanks to his language based learning differences. He'll probably have progressed enough to get good grades by the time he's graded, but he still may have a harder time than his sister who, so far, seems to be a whiz at language. I think it's a great idea to celebrate a kid's hard work, but I don't think money is the right way to do it.
For a challenging reading program my son does outside of school, he gets a cash reward for passing a level (which takes months of hard work to accomplish). We don't have a cash reward policy for grades. We might celebrate a good report card by letting him pick out a not too expensive toy, or by going out to dinner. An author I like explained that paying for grades is no different than an adult getting paid for working. In my opinion, it depends on what motivates the child.
I should add that my husband and I are involved in helping our son review for tests, review his homework, etc. My husband will even re-teach him the science material if the way it was presented in the classroom didn't work. We expect our son to do well, and he expects that of himself.
as i have reflected more on this and have read all the comments both here and on FB i can't help but wonder what my real issue is.... is it with giving money for a job well done? or is it with reinforcing a need for success that is measured by a calculated system that some kids fit into well and others do not (but are no less successful)? i like the idea of celebrating my kids for their individual (not to be mistaken for mediocrity) successes. hmmmmm..........
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