Reward

Do we mistake reward and learning in schools today?
I personally think so. Here is a diploma congratulations you passed kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school…these are all required parts of your education. We are rewarding them for accomplishing what they were supposed to. Or parents that pay their children for their A’s, students are expected to get A’s. Students expect pizza parties if they are good, and they expect that if they do the work required of them that they should get something special. Not even something extra that they are doing, the work that they have to be doing. Often my students go…I’ll sing this if you sing for me. It should not work that way, they are there to learn. As everyone knows we have had a series of bomb scares, and for the first couple we rewarded the students by letting them go home. They got the rest of the day off and the person who did the threat was a hero, but the second we took this away and make them stay the person was horrible. We have to be careful not to reward them for bad behavior. Not that rewards do not have their place, but they should be special. The student needs to find their own inner rewards that cause them to feel good. They do not need to be rewarded for being students.