I didn’t know why they would do it.
I remember it was a thing, particularly with the Lil’wrekker. She was your classic “drove the teacher batty asking for study guides, and when the test would be returned”.
She liked doing her best. Part of that was knowing the number grade.
My son is in 2nd grade, and we are rewarding him with money based on his grades.
He has three big evaluations during the school year that is a 1-4 system. 4 is for “exceeds expectations” in a given category, and so on down. His first eval showed he’s behind, especially compared to how smart he appears outside of school context. Since he’s recently begun to wrap his head around what money is and what he can do with it, we decided to use that for some extra motivation.
Because I have to listen to it, I know his reading has vastly improved in the last couple months. I don’t think he’s thinking of the money, but he’s trying either way. We’re just starting this, so we’ll see how it goes.
For context, I did not get money for grades. I think mrs.gnu occasionally got money for grades from her grandfather. I got a regular modest allowance, which taught me to budget and do real-world math. She never got any cash from her parents, ever. Her mom wanted to keep that control. Our son can earn chore money, but doesn’t get an allowance (a parental disagreement I do not press).
We’ve recently learned that the school kids do talk, brag, and shame about having money.
This whole post was excellent. I would like to add that the job concept is sometimes needed.
But following that - if my job paid me only if I delivered perfect performance including for factors outside my control, I’d burn out real fast.
I’ve heard of a poker chip economy- chips are won each night for certain tangible evidence of quality work put in. Those chips are exchanged for screen time, and so on. Maybe even a special treat.
That is more like a job.
Honestly I don’t know exactly why the teachers don’t return tests. I assume it’s the reusing test thing. It just burns me because I want my son to learn from his mistakes, I want him to learn for the sake of learning, and his teachers sometimes act as a roadblock to that for what I assume is for testing integrity.
I remember a book that had the same info as the test. And maybe a study sheet, for the exact test.
I had lots of siblings. Heck, yeah we passed info down from school year to school year with each other.
By the time school started every fall we had the teacher and the class scoped out. And learned who else had our schedule.
I don’t think there’s anyway to keep it completely on the down low. If no resources, ever how obtained, are on the desk during the test. I do not see an issue with tests taken off the school property.
Every text book can be found online, with suggested study guides and tests.
Of course reusing the test from last year is simply labor saving for the teachers. I’ll grant that creating a good test is hard and time consuming.
All this leads back to the fact that humans game every system they’re in, and game it hard.
If students didn’t even try to get advance copies of tests, those tests could be returned to the takers, reused year after year, and accurately reflect the actual learning of future years’ student, not mere cribbing off an illicit answer key = graded prior year test. But that’s not human nature.
Before transitioning to educational tech to preserve my sanity, I always impressed upon my second graders that school was their job. I remember one kid responding incredulously, “JOB!? I’m not getting paid anything.” I asked if he paid rent to live in his home. He said no. I asked if he paid for his meals, his clothes, etc. All the answers were no. I said, that’s because all those things ARE your pay for doing the one job you have as a kid, and that job is to work at getting an education and becoming self-sufficient. I told them that their parents and I expect you to come to work every day and do your job to the best of your ability.
I think paying kids for good grades is poor psychology but, if that’s what some parents want to do, that’s their business.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I’m not sure that’s the soundest psychology, either. That implies that if they don’t work, get good grades, etc., they won’t get fed, housed, etc. I could see that psychologically being harmful to some kids who think this through.
Like I said, I don’t pay my kids directly. I never got paid directly, but I’m sure I got that Commodore 128 partly because I was a good student, or I got that Korg M1 keyboard because I was diligient in playing. And so on. I still got “paid” even if it wasn’t by any direct agreement. My father-in-law, who was a pretty hard-ass conservative fiscally, politically, psychologically, socially, would pay his grandson a few hundred bucks in high school for good grades. I’m surprised he, of all people, would do such a thing. And, I admit, I was a little taken aback, thinking kids shouldn’t be directly paid for their grades. But it worked out well. The kid’s nearing the end of college and is killing it with his business degree and internships that have him set up for a rather nice job in the financial sector. I can’t help to think that a little of that incentive helped him get to where he is. So now I just shrug my shoulders and say, eh, for some kids, it may work fine. No need to get judgy about it.
Well, unless their parents are willing to let them lie around their home and do nothing like large, adult slugs, then how are they going to get fed, housed, etc, after their K-12 life is done? Usually, the answer is they have to take crap jobs because they didn’t prepare themselves for anything else.
My parents loved my brother and I very much, but it was understood that at the age of 18, we had to be prepared to do one of three things. We needed to join the military, get a college education in preparation for a career, or get a job and pay rent to remain at home. That never scarred me in any way. I think we treat kids like snowflakes in far too many instances when a dose of reality is far preferable.
The implication isn’t that they’ll get kicked out in ten years: the implication is that they’ll get kicked out now.
If I don’t work at my job, they don’t say, “In ten years you’re in trouble.” Kids know that too.
In any case, I don’t want a teacher or anyone else turning my familial relationships into a market-based employer/employee relationship. That’s not the only model for mutual responsibility, and it’s definitely not the one I promote in my family.
I do tell students sometimes about the cost of their education. In my state (one of the lowest costs), it’s an average of $70 per child per day. I ask students: are you getting your $70 worth of learning out of the day? I especially ask that question if they’re complaining about not being able to get on the latest browser game that some kid has figured out isn’t blocked by our district software yet. But I see that as a little different: I want kids to know that we value their education very highly and are putting a lot of resources into it, and that they should rise to that challenge and take advantage of those resources.
I don’t know that it’s the best parenting advice ever, but it’s probably the best parenting-adjacent advice ever.
Hey, I wouldn’t necessarily look to myself for parenting advice, either. 
So far, the general philosophy has been okay.
Are we expecting seven year old second graders to internalize the idea of working hard at school because they’ll need to be be self sufficient in eleven years?
It’s not wrong, but that’s delayed gratification taken to an extreme level. Kids need timely feedback, not a promise that someday in the far far future they’ll be glad they studied instead of watching TV. Even with a concrete benefit like going out to their favorite restaurant, buying a game they want, or cold hard cash, young kids often don’t look that far in advance.
Right- it’s the same basic concept as training a toddler to pee in the potty with M&Ms or training a dog to do just about anything with treats.
You reinforce what you like, and you don’t reinforce what you don’t. Eventually it becomes habit, and you don’t have to keep doing it.
Paying a kid a nominal amount for each A is perfectly cromulent- if nothing else, ideally it gets them in the right habits to keep on doing it after you stop, or at least to understand the habits.
But I’d disagree that $100 for all A’s is really as useful; it is an all-or-nothing thing, which may not be achievable, and on the scales and time frames kids think in, may as well be “$100 for climbing a mountain”. But say… $10-15 per A isn’t a terrible thing- it’s not much money, and it’s reinforcing the specific right behaviors.
I heard a teacher say the same thing when I was in school and even then I thought it was a big pile of baloney. If a kid is failing school a parent is still going to provide them with a roof over their head, food, and shoes on their feet. For all practical purposes, school isn’t a job. Even if a parent rewards their kid with a little cash for good grades, it still isn’t a job.
The habits though aren’t the grades. The habits are, well, the habits. Taking notes. Previewing the material for tomorrow. Reviewing the material of yesterday. Breaking down a long term project into bite sized steps each with their own due date. Maybe even connecting the material to something else you have learned before. Doing the skills practice a bit every day. Not cramming for a test in the last few days. Even if they get a good grade doing that it is not the habit I want to reinforce.
ISTM that reinforcing a subject grade is a step away from the habits themselves and only able to be applied once a grading period. And money is a step away from more direct reinforcement like privileges for the week.
FWIW I know of no anecdotes of kids paid for grades who developed into intellectually curious people.
Don’t assume that was anywhere near my entire focus. They got plenty of immediate rewards also. A small natural fruit bag was way more exciting to them than a 30 minute video on the benefits of working hard in school. LOL
Careful. You might instil in your child a mentality that they should be compensated for their hard work.
“Habits” meaning both the short term and long term behaviors needed to make good grades at the end of the term.
Now I don’t really think it’s very useful to incentivize a say… 3rd grader in this way. But an eighth grader? Absolutely. They’re old enough to keep the final goal in mind over time, and connect it back to the short-term behaviors they’re doing. And they’re generally broke enough that 10-15 bucks an A is big money for them, especially out-of-cycle from birthdays and Xmas.
Whose didn’t? I had the singular expectation that I’d go to college, and if I wanted to not live at home and go to the University of Houston, I’d better get a scholarship. So I did. I suppose the backup plan if I couldn’t hack college was to enlist in the military, but that wasn’t really something we ever discussed in any detail, as college was the one and only expectation.
And for the record, I had some monetary incentives to get good grades as well, but they weren’t high enough for me to really care. I mean, in high school I had enough odd jobs (cat-sitting, lawn mowing, vacation house care), actual jobs, and birthday/xmas cash that busting my ass for like $10 per A wasn’t very motivating. Not that I wouldn’t have happily taken $70 bucks at the end of the semester, but it wasn’t enough to keep me motivated over the course of the semester. It’s like taking a grownup at work and trying to incentivize them with a year-end $100 bonus. That’s not going to work very well with many people, as it’s just too low.