Why Do School Parents Get Paid?

Since the beginning of school parents have struggled with their kids to get good grades. They have begged, threatened, cried, harassed, beaten and praised the kids. Now they are trying bribing the students. This new philosophy is not just at home it has spread across the nation. Programs like: Learn-&-Earn have sprung up to pay for kids from first grade up through junior high for good grades, some kids earning as much as 2,000 dollars per year. (4 Psych Today) In the second year of the sparks program the students collectively have earned over 1.25 million dollars from a private fund. Studies show that children who are paid for their good grades have been placed 40 percentage points higher on standardized tests. ( 3 Magee) In these schools they said that students had more motivation, they paid attention more …show more content…
There has not been a lot of research done on the effect of money and grades on the children. It has been based off of what parents do at home. My mom does not pay me for grades, she uses grades to keep me from having to spend my own money. Every A I don't have to pay a cent, B: I have to pay $100, C: I have to pay $250, D: I have to pay $500 and an F I do not get the car I am trying to pay off. So instead of being payed for my good grades, I have to pay for my bad grades. This gives me motivation but does not give me the competition with other students that could derail my learning and I still develop the love for long term learning. If the long term effect of being payed for grades is detrimental to children then it should be nixed. Students should learn with the motivation of good grades not money or any other reward similar. Standardized tests might be lower but it will show the true knowledge of children instead. We need to stop the spread of the programs and go back to praising our children for the average grades. They will be more successful in the long run and we will have a better