Immediate gratification is what our children are learning to expect when we know that for all good things you must wait and work hard!
Fortunate are the kids:
- Whose parents let them struggle for, and earn, the things they want.
- Whose parents “match their funds” for large purchases after the child have worked hard to earn his portion.
- Whose parents expect them to be responsible around the house and in school.
- Whose parents set loving limits, give their children reasonable choices and allow consequences for those choices.
In many states we are paying students to learn but we aren’t even paying for professional development opportunities for teachers to learn more and do different for today’s kids. If teachers want to go over and beyond for quality professional development opportunities relative to their needs – they must PAY the conference fees, travel, hotel, meals and either are reimbursed a few weeks after returning or not be reimbursed at all.
Have we asked employers how they will feel about this new “entitlement mindset” becoming a fixture in their workplace?
- Underachievers… doing just enough to get by
- Always expecting something in return for any work done
- Always given so will more than likely wait for more and complain when it is not offered
Are we ever again going to be able to say, “She always goes over and beyond the call of duty”?
Money has a way of bringing out the worst in us… how will we handle the cheating epidemic that will arise?
Children need to learn that you get what you work for and not a check for simply attending and possibly cheating to get more.
Paying students for grades is not teaching it puts more value on money than on personal goals. The reverse of this for teachers is the same – some want to given monetary incentives to teachers for good test scores, which defeats what we know is good for students.
Students don’t go to school for that one test at the end of the year. Students go to school to learn how to study, connect information and make sense of the world we live in. Money, even for teachers, would corrupt the system.
