Paying Kids for Good Grades

I saw this post on The Stir last week and have been thinking about it since. The basic premise is: should kids be paid in cold, hard cash for good grades? While I'm many years away from even considering having to "bribe" my son into doing well in school, my personal answer to the question is WHY NOT?

Growing up, I was never paid for getting good grades. However, some time between elementary and middle school, my brother and I were paid for chores and other things around the house. Our parents offered them as incentives: remember to put the cap back on the toothpaste, get a nickel; make your bed, you earned a quarter; do the dishes, fifty cents! Thinking back, maybe the cash incentives helped set in my brain that these normal, everyday duties weren't only necessary, but not such horrible things to do after all — after all, in my current life as a domestic diva, I would probably feel incomplete if I didn't do these things. I like having a clean and clear sink free of dishes; I not only replace the toothpaste cap, but I make sure to squeeze from the bottom; my bed is always made. These are things that are on auto-pilot in my brain.

So back to cash for grades ... some commenters on the original post say that it leads kids to be materialistic or otherwise worship money, and that getting good grades should be all the reward they need. In a perfect world, yes, kids should want to do well in school because they realize it will only benefit them and their future. But we don't live in a perfect world. Sometimes, some kids need more or different kinds of motivation. (For me, I did so poorly my sophomore year in high school that I had to re-take some classes over the summer. That sucked. After that, I cleaned up my act.)

Does it lead kids to become more materialistic? I'm more concerned about all the products that are pushed onto kids these days. I'd rather have a kid who will say, "One day I want to make enough money so I can buy whatever I want," than a kid who expects me to just buy him the latest clothes and toys. Between seeing what other kids in school have and all the product advertising that we're surrounded by, how do we teach our kids the difference between need and want? I think what makes us a materialistic society is that too many parents have made it easy for their kids to accumulate (often unnecessary) things. Sure, some families can afford to buy whatever they want, but again, how much of it is necessary? How are we teaching our kids to value things? If they get everything they want without "working" for it, how is that going to help them out there in the big, bad world where, you know, most people do get paid for doing good work.

For my son, he will most definitely know that he cannot have things just because he wants them. While it's tough to say how much motivation he will need in school (or even with household chores), I have absolutely no problem with offering him opportunities to earn money. If he wants something that bad, then he can work for it, whether it's by doing extra chores or projects around the house or earning better grades. He won't just get paid for the hell of it, he's going to get paid so he can learn to save what he earned and (hopefully) put it to good use.