Progress Report & Rewards
Progress reports were sent home from school a couple of days ago.
The next day A (a school friend who has been coming to our house after school this week) shows up with brand new shoes. Carie notices the bright, perfectly clean, and cute shoes. Carie comments on how cute they are. She replied that they went shopping for shoes the night before because she had a good progress report.
For some reason it just doesn't sit well with me. Keep in mind that A is the oldest of the 2 kids in her family.
We talk with the girls about how they are doing in school and how proud we are of their efforts and their accomplishments. They talk about how much they like going to school. We talk about specific classes, specific projects, specific events, and just day to day stuff. But we have yet to sit down with them and go over the 4 page progress report line by line. I think there will be a point where we should and will. Maybe we should be already, I don't know.
Out of curiosity I brought it up with the girls last night as we were talking about stuff. I asked them if they knew about their "progress report". They said no. So I explained to them what it was. They were so not interested and ready to move on! So I did.
I'm not saying that I oppose giving our kids rewards for their achievements... and having an incentive to achieve. But having materialistic rewards at age 5, in K? They already have a love for school and learning. They are already doing great things just for being who they are. Shouldn't that be what it is about at that age?
But then I know we have bribed our kids with rewards for other things and at much younger ages. Somehow this feels different. Something to ponder!
The next day A (a school friend who has been coming to our house after school this week) shows up with brand new shoes. Carie notices the bright, perfectly clean, and cute shoes. Carie comments on how cute they are. She replied that they went shopping for shoes the night before because she had a good progress report.
For some reason it just doesn't sit well with me. Keep in mind that A is the oldest of the 2 kids in her family.
We talk with the girls about how they are doing in school and how proud we are of their efforts and their accomplishments. They talk about how much they like going to school. We talk about specific classes, specific projects, specific events, and just day to day stuff. But we have yet to sit down with them and go over the 4 page progress report line by line. I think there will be a point where we should and will. Maybe we should be already, I don't know.
Out of curiosity I brought it up with the girls last night as we were talking about stuff. I asked them if they knew about their "progress report". They said no. So I explained to them what it was. They were so not interested and ready to move on! So I did.
I'm not saying that I oppose giving our kids rewards for their achievements... and having an incentive to achieve. But having materialistic rewards at age 5, in K? They already have a love for school and learning. They are already doing great things just for being who they are. Shouldn't that be what it is about at that age?
But then I know we have bribed our kids with rewards for other things and at much younger ages. Somehow this feels different. Something to ponder!
Labels: School
posted by Sonya at 8:00 AM
1 Comments:
I say you are on the right track. We have two 10 year olds and a 6 year old in school and we've never rewarded them materially for their grades. It is their ability to get pleasure out of accomplishment, and to get praise from us for their efforts, that keeps them moving forward and loving learning. That's what's going on...not the material stuff. Good job!
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