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Should grade day be payday?

Experts on kids and money say parental cash rewards can be effective, but they disagree on when and for how long.

By ELISABETH DYER
Published April 11, 2005

	[Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.]
	"I love paying it out. I think it's the way to go," says Jennie Parry, with sons Benton, left, a 10th-grader, and Jonathan, an eighth-grader. They get $20 per A, $10 per B and $5 per C; they have to pay $10 if they get an F.

If all goes well, 14-year-old Jonathan Parry could pocket as much as $180 when he gets home from school today.

The reason: It's report card day. Jonathan, an eighth-grader at Tampa's Ferrell Middle School, has seven classes and gets $20 for every A, $10 for every B and $5 for each C. An all A-B report card earns him a $40 bonus.

"I love paying it out," says Jennie Parry, his mother. "I think it's the way to go."

So do thousands of other parents in the Tampa Bay area, where report card day - at least for their children - has become another term for payday.

This afternoon, more than 100,000 middle school and high school students in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties will bring home their latest grades. Some will earn a pat on the back; others, a celebratory dinner.

Many will get considerably more.

Jeremy Pipes, a Brandon High School 11th-grader, expects all A's and B's on his report card. His payoff: an amplifier for his bass guitar.

Barbara Cassidy, a freshman at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, says her father thinks parents shouldn't bribe their kids for good grades. But she still got a Game Boy last year when she avoided C's on a report card.

"Knowing I'll get a reward helps," the 15-year-old said.

In many ways, parents are just following the lead of the schools, which use all kinds of rewards to motivate students.

Teachers hand out candy, pencils and certificates. Local businesses donate movie tickets, game tokens and free meals.

Students who make the honor roll at Largo Middle School get charge cards that admit them to the lunchroom a few minutes before the bell. They get to choose their seats while others must sit where they are assigned.

The goal of such incentives is to foster self-motivation, says Joanne Baumgartner, the principal at Mitchell Elementary School in Tampa.

"You start off with concrete rewards, whether a sticker or piece of candy," she says. "Then as we learn the value of education, we want it to become intrinsic, to come from being proud of the accomplishment."

Others think that's nuts.

Dianna Howard, who has three children in Hillsborough schools, says she celebrates their best efforts with praise rather than cash. Rewarding grades with money, she says, doesn't teach them anything good.

"I think it's gotten really egregious," Howard says. "I cringe when I hear my kids tell of friends who get $10 for an A."

"A slippery slope'

Experts on children and finances say rewards can be an effective motivator - in limited circumstances.

In much the way treats are used to help potty train small children, rewards can help with grades in the short term, says Janet Bodnar, the author of several books on kids and money, most recently Dollars & Sense for Kids .

"But what you really want to get to is a point in which they're satisfied with their own performance," says Bodnar, who says buying grades never works in the long run. "You can't really control your kid's behavior with money. If they come to expect it, you'll always have to one-up yourself. It's a slippery slope."

Judith Briles, author of Smart Money Moves for Kids , disagrees. She says rewards can pay off long-term, especially when they are used with teens who choose to focus on school instead of a part-time job.

"It's an exchange of brain for brawn" that can earn scholarships and entry into college, Briles says. If teens make the decision to focus their energies on school work, she says, incentives of cash, mall certificates or DVDs can keep them on track.

Motivating your child with cash should never be a first resort, says Gary Buffone, a psychologist and author o f Choking on the Silver Spoon: Keeping Your Kids Healthy, Wealthy and Wise in a Land of Plenty .

But for older children struggling with grades, he says, money incentives can become necessary. He suggests setting an amount (perhaps $30 to $50) that compares to what the child could earn elsewhere. And tie the reward, he says, to grade-point average so that an easy class doesn't receive the same weight as a challenging one.

"The way I see it, school is their job," Buffone says. "It's not bribery. It's a paycheck."

Finding the right strategy

Yolanda Gibson of Seminole Heights doesn't like paying for good grades, since she expects nothing less from her four children, two at Riverview High School and two at Booker T. Washington K-8.

"They should be giving their all from the beginning," she says. Her husband disagrees. He hands out $10 for A's, $7 for B's and $5 for C's.

Gibson admits the kids are eager for today's payment.

"They're making plans," she says. "They say "I hope I did good on my exam. We're going to the nail shop."'

Even when they disagree about paying for grades - which happens often - many parents say they try to adopt a strategy that will produce positive results.

At Donna Morrison's South Tampa home, cash for good grades replaces much of her two daughters' weekly allowance. She pays both her seventh-grader and her fourth-grader $10 per A and $5 per B.

"We get paid for our jobs, and we want them to work as hard as they can on their jobs," Morrison says.

Jennie and Owen Parry - the parents of 14-year-old Jonathan, who hopes his report card will help pay for a PlayStation Portable - came up with their plan after Benton, their oldest son, started to struggle in middle school.

Their brainstorm: include a stick with all the carrots.

In addition to paying for good marks, the Parrys fine their children $10 for every F, a penalty both kids have had to pay. They also lose some privileges, including use of the computer.

The strategy worked - for a while. Benton's grades rose. But now in the 10th grade, he says the money has lost much of its power.

"I'm over the thrill of it," Benton says. "If they quit paying, I would continue getting the same grades."

--Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report. Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at 813 226-3321 or edyer@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 11, 2005, 01:19:11]