Some parents offer their school-age children money for each high grade (mark) they get in school. Do you think this is a good idea?

Some parents offer their school-age children money for each high grade (mark) they get in school. Do you think this is a good idea?

The prevailing notion is that parents should offer their school-age students money for each high grade they get in school, claiming that children will be encouraged and get better performance in school. This may be sound plausible at the first glimpse. However, it is not convincing enough for me to agree with them. Personally speaking, I think school-age children should not be given money for each high grade they get in school.

Admittedly, school-age students are required to accomplish a wide range of curriculum in school, making them have no time to gain money from other methods. Thus, if they intend to buy something but hard to talk to mom and dad, they will have no choice but get a high grade in school, which will be rewarded by parents. Nevertheless, when reconsidering this thing carefully, I would say that there are many problems in offering money for each high grade their children get in school.

Firstly, this behavior contributes to develop the incorrect utilitarianism among children. To be specific, if parents give money  children money every time when they get high grades, children will do anything to get good grades like copying other classmates answers or making cheat sheet. Besides, if children fall in exams, they will try all kinds of ways to cheat their parents in order to get money. For instance, once my classmate John got a D in his exam, he was extremely frustrated because not only did he not get the monetary encouragement from his parents, but he was also going to be blamed. Therefore, he came up with the idea that he altered the marks on the test paper and wrote the satisfying marks on it. Unfortunately, his behavior was discovered by his parents and he was never rewarded. Consequently, offering children money for each high grade they get will cause harm to them.

Second, money is not the perfect gift when parents intend to reward their children. School-age children usually stay in school most of the time, and they do not have time to spend their money, so offering their money is not useful. Instead，parents can encourage their children’s efforts to improve their meals or take their children to go outside and release pressure from studying, which will also can enhance parental and child relationship. If the relationship has been improved, children will understand their parents better, so they will want to study hard to repay their parents.

In conclusion, parents should consider carefully when they offer money to their children whey children get good grades. Moreover, there are many preferable choices to reward children like cooking their favorite food or taking them to watch their favorite movies.