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?

Nowadays, parents adopt various methods to motivate their children to study hard. One measure is to offer their school-age children money for each high grade they get. Some people approve of this method, while others oppose it. From my point of view, I disagree with the idea because it will misguide children and exert a lot of pressure on them.

To begin with, giving money for rewards will mislead children about the purpose of the study. They will gradually become utilitarian instead of regarding study as their responsibilities. Children have to study hard in school, no matter they will get rewards or not. They should study hard out of their interests, but if parents use money as a reward, children’s incentive for studying will change into a negative one. Once their parents stop giving them money anymore, they may lose the motivation for study and may start to be decadent. For example, my cousin’s parents used to give him a considerable amount of pocket money if he got a high score when he was at school. Years after, my cousin entered a company and got his job. His parents no longer awarded him money, so he slackened off. He stopped learning anything new, and he even did not attend corporate training. The result was that he lost the chance of promotion for many times.

Secondly, it may give children a lot of pressure and destroy children’s real interests if parents offer money for their high marks. Some children are not talented in studying the school’s subjects, instead, they have other interests like dancing, painting, even playing or designing games. For these kinds of students who are not very smart or do not have any interest in studying, it is too hard for them to get high grades. However, many children want to get more money so that they can buy things they want with more freedom. As a result, some children whose development prospects are not in school will try hard to get high grades just to get more money from their parents. They may feel very tired and toilsome in the schoolwork, and their real interests then vanish.

To sum up, I do not think giving school-aged children money to reward their high marks is a good idea, because it will give children a distorted impression about the purpose of studying hard, and because children will have more pressure and they may lose their real interests.