Parents have been cautioned that offering cash-for-As exchange could damage their children’s intrinsic drive to learn and could lead to conflict
For years, parents have dangled financial incentives to encourage scholastic achievement, but experts are now saying this could do more harm than good. Dr Cath Lowther, general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists, spoke to Sky News about the potential pitfalls of such rewards.
Dr Lowther cautioned that cash-for-grades schemes might “eventually kill off intrinsic motivation”. She pointed out that the lure of money can chip away at a child’s enjoyment of learning and their ability to set and meet their own goals.
Moreover, she highlighted that these practices could cause friction in classrooms, as not all parents participate or offer the same rewards. Dr Lowther also criticised the education system for embedding external motivators from an early age, such as giving out gold stars.
Dr Emma Citron, a consultant clinical psychologist, has warned that this could add unnecessary stress to students who are still trying to catch up after the pandemic. She said: “I just think that it’s sending all the wrong messages as parents.”
“You’re adding to their pressure and actually, more importantly, changing the dynamic between you and your children. You’re making it conditional on outcome, on reward, rather than what we know to be good, which is unconditional approval and validation.[“
Counsellor Georgina Sturmer echoed these sentiments, telling NerdWallet about the potential discord it can cause among siblings. She pointed out that rewards for high grades can lead to “challenging consequences” whether the children achieve the goal or not.
She suggested that offering incentives at crucial stages in a child’s development could link the parenting technique to their self-esteem and self-worth, potentially leading to extremes in adulthood from perfectionism and people-pleasing to rebellions fuelled by a sense of failure. However, she emphasised that these criticisms of offering incentives should not discourage parents from celebrating their children’s accomplishments.
She elaborated: “It’s a positive thing to reward all that effort and hard work with some kind of incentive that feels appropriate within our own families. The crucial thing is to just not tie it to those grades at the end as this sets them up to fail if they don’t achieve them.”
