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Liu Yi

Clint Glover

Wed.8:00

May 27th,2019

Undue reward is inadvisable

When the examination is over and the children have achieved good academic

results, parents are thinking about whether to use money as a reward. Although

money is a good thing, it is also the source of all evil. Though money can stimulate

people's desires and then become motivated, it has a function, that is, trading.

Learning is the duty of children. If children treat learning well as a trade, it is always

bad.

If the bigger the reward, the higher the reward the child will give back, the

significance of what the child does itself will easily be ignored. Compared with the

notebook computer sent by parents, the happiness of studying is infinitely reduced.

Then next time there is no computer, will you be happy studying? This makes

children think that learning has become a deal. Psychologist Festinger analyzed the

theory of cognitive dissonance and said: When people do not like a certain task but

have to do it, this feeling is uncomfortable. If the behavior cannot be changed, then

he will instinctively change his attitude to reduce the sense of cognitive dissonance,

and if he is given sufficient motivation (such as high reward) to do so, they will not

experience cognitive dissonance and thus will not change the attitude of hating the

behavior.
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The point is: children should not think that learning is for family, for computers

and for amusement parks. It doesn't consider the significance of learning to oneself

at all. Learning is a meaningful thing, and different attitudes will be treated

differently. Getting good grades can be recognized by teachers and students. This

recognition is itself an attribute of happiness.

Moreover, the quality of a child's learning habits is related to the child's life, and

it is not a long-term solution to stimulate the child's learning with money. Therefore,

reward gifts should not be given frequently to children, and children should take

learning as their own business. Carol Dweck, a psychologist and author, suggests to

reward your child verbally. Once your child has achieved a goal, say how the effort

and studying paid off and how you’re proud he improved his grades. Parents can

take this way.

The most important thing is to cultivate children's good study habits. Mr. Ye

Shengtao said: "A good habit has been formed and will benefit you all your life. It is

not easy to change a bad habit once it has been formed and has suffered losses all

one's life. " Parents should communicate sincerely with their children. If children do

not achieve good results, they should tell their children that difficulties or setbacks in

learning are inevitable. At the same time, parents can also talk about their past

experiences and lessons of learning successes or failures to give their children the

necessary confidence and courage.

Children's learning goals are not firm indeed. Many children are interested in

learning for three minutes. Parents should guide their children's interest in learning.

This has nothing to do with money. If you think that direct money can guide
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children's interest, give it a try. However, what I want to say is that children are

growing up, we should not let them become money slaves, but turn over to be the

masters of money.

Psychological studies going back as far as the early 1970s have found that

rewards program often result in less engaged students. The studies show that

students who receive rewards are being trained to do the minimum amount needed

to get the reward – not developing an intrinsic love of learning that ultimately makes

them more successful academically and as an adult.

Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards, told NPR: "Research confirms

that the bigger the reward, the more damage it does by encouraging students to

focus on the goodies, not the learning. The more you use cell phones, T-shirts,

money or whatever, the more you undermine motivation for becoming engaged and

prolific learners", he said.

The great scientist Einstein said, "Interest is the best teacher." That is to say, once

a person has a strong interest in something, he will take the initiative to seek

knowledge, explore and practice, and produce pleasant emotions and experiences in

seeking knowledge, exploration and practice. Therefore, educators at all times and in

all countries attach importance to the role of interest in learning. Learning itself is a

complicated mental work, which requires persistence to be successful. If there is no

interest to support, then learning will become boring. Strong interest can stimulate

students' morale, overcome various difficulties in learning, maintain enthusiasm in

learning and enjoy themselves. Therefore, parents should help their children to

develop interests rather than lure them to study with money.

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As a result, parents are advised not to use money as a reward for their children

to achieve good grades. However, it is still okay to buy something children like as a

reward. (815 words)

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Works Cited

Leon Festinger. The theory of cognitive dissonance was put forward by Festinger in

his book Cognitive dissonance in 1957.

Carol Dweck. "Reward your child verbally." TED Posted Dec. 2014.

Ye Shengtao. "A good habit has been formed and will benefit you all your life. It is

not easy to change a bad habit once it has been formed and has suffered losses

all one's life. " Wen Xin Posted Nov. 2008.

Alfie Kohn. "the bigger the reward, the more damage it does by encouraging

students to focus on the goodies, not the learning. " NPR post 29 August. 2009.

Einstein. "Interest is the best teacher." Einstein corpus, 1 Dec. 2009.