[quote=scaredycat]if they’re caught cheating, they won’t get an A. If they cheat and don’t get caught they’re not likely to turn themselves in. I don’t have a problem with gaming the system, if it’s done within the rules, which is what i consider gaming the system. why shouldn’tone be rewarded for properly gaming the system?

Also–how is money different from a ‘reward” ata nite at sizzler, or even praise? Theya re just varying forms of motivators. Does the lucre somehow contaminate the purity of the mission? if so, is there any purity tot he type of learning that actually goes on — stacks ofmeaningless homework, etc…maybe i need to pay more…[/quote]

Personally, I don’ think it’s morally objectionable about “enticing” a kid a bit here and there, but again, in your son’s case, what does he plan to do with the money? That’s why I’m thinking it might not work…Maybe a better option would be to figure out what he likes, and subsidize his purchase(s) based on how he does along with a (small) allowance to do regular choirs. (Little lessons in money management at an early age isn’t a bad thing anyway..In fact, it’s probably a good thing in america.)

Imho, again, I think the important thing here is more about a lesson of developing work habits versus the raw “A”. Not knowing the details of your son, I can’t tell if he has work habits but having a hard time OR if he just doesn’t have good work habits.

True, almost everyone games the system to varying degrees, but I’d be concerned if you son tries to game everything and shows no interest in one particular thing. And you probably don’t want to encourage that sort of behavior because it sets a presidence for his future…Admittedly, I sort of circumvented a good portion of early English literature because I hated reading those books and much rather spend my time on science/math/computers…I survived on cliff notes and movie versions of the the books even though teachers warned explicitly don’t count on those aids alone because my tests are designed to weed out people that only read those cliff notes/watch the movie (which was bullshit, because I did better than those people that actually read the books and didn’t use those aides.) In hindsight, I missed out on a lot of great work written in the past and is probably why I am sort of off balanced when it comes to worldly knowledge….