more notes from "Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?"
"it treated kids not as inanimate objects but as human beings who behave in interesting ways"
"The reward, it seemed, diminished the act of drawing."
"we should teach them to derive intrinsic pleasure from the task itself."
"People of all ages perform better and work harder if they are actually enjoying the work - not just the reward that comes later."
"We tend to assume that kids (and adults) know how to achieve success. If they don't get there, it's for lack of effort - or talent. Sometimes that's true. But a lot of the time, people are just flying blind."
"So what happens if we pay kids to do tasks they know how to do? In Dallas, paying kids to read books - something almost all of them can do - made a big difference."
"But the students were also paid on the basis of attendance and behavior - two actions that are under their direct control."
"Kids may respond better to rewards for specific actions because there is less risk of failure. They can control their attendance; they cannot necessarily control their test scores. The key, then, may be to teach kids to control more overall - to encourage them to act as if they can indeed control everything, and reward that effort above and beyond the actual outcome."
"Just like grownups, kids need different kinds of incentives to get through the day, some highbrow and some low, some short-term, some longer-term."
"We're kids. Let's be realistic."
"The reward, it seemed, diminished the act of drawing."
"we should teach them to derive intrinsic pleasure from the task itself."
"People of all ages perform better and work harder if they are actually enjoying the work - not just the reward that comes later."
"We tend to assume that kids (and adults) know how to achieve success. If they don't get there, it's for lack of effort - or talent. Sometimes that's true. But a lot of the time, people are just flying blind."
"So what happens if we pay kids to do tasks they know how to do? In Dallas, paying kids to read books - something almost all of them can do - made a big difference."
"But the students were also paid on the basis of attendance and behavior - two actions that are under their direct control."
"Kids may respond better to rewards for specific actions because there is less risk of failure. They can control their attendance; they cannot necessarily control their test scores. The key, then, may be to teach kids to control more overall - to encourage them to act as if they can indeed control everything, and reward that effort above and beyond the actual outcome."
"Just like grownups, kids need different kinds of incentives to get through the day, some highbrow and some low, some short-term, some longer-term."
"We're kids. Let's be realistic."