Offering children bribes for outcomes is not necessarily a bad thing, say some experts, and is actually a widespread practice.

Even the City of New York has been getting in on the act lately, after reports that the city is now paying $25 to fourth-graders who get a perfect score on the state exam.

Associate Professor John Lidstone, from Queensland University of Technology’s faculty of education, prefers to call them incentives.

“We all work better with incentives, he says. “And that’s what makes education really hard for children.

“The incentives in education are so long-term for children, they simply are beyond their horizons.

“It’s not much good telling a child that if you do well you’ll be able to drive a massive car some time in the future when, for most children, three weeks is a very long time.”

Offering modest incentives does not prevent children from becoming self-motivated adults, he says.

Many of us have learnt how to reward ourselves, but as we get older we take a longer-term view…

The trick with children is not to make the incentives too high, or the outcomes unachievable…

“And if parents are going to go broke rewarding their children, it can distort their whole sense of values and give kids totally the wrong impression of what is important in life.” …

Discussing with your children what they think is achievable for them – and then rewarding them accordingly – is another way to benefit from the incentive process.

“The idea of rewards and incentives gives an opportunity to parents and children to discuss what is achievable,” Lidstone says…

Setting priorities and discussing them then turns something that is unpalatable – planning for the future and getting serious about education – into something that is much more fun…

Source: Courier Mail, Australia
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22479787-23272,00.html