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What's the most important thing that we want our children to get out of schooling? An education, right? We want them to learn and gain tools for use in life outside of school. However, when we offer our children money in exchange for good grades, we give them the idea that grades are what we want them to get out of schooling and that grades are the most important thing.

There are many ways to get good grades, and not all of those ways involve learning and gaining useful tools. Offering money in exchange for good grades gives children the incentive to get good grades. However, it does not give children the incentive to learn and get the most out of the education offered in school.

Making grades matter most gets in the way of learning and getting a good education. We all prefer instant gratification to delayed. In this way, money for good grades now has more appeal than a good foundation of knowledge for use later. On which goal will our children put a higher priority?

We learn best what interests us and what is enjoyable to learn. Putting a monetary value on learning adds pressure and takes away the fun. Grades are punitive in and of themselves as they judge and rank our children. Attaching money to grades multiplies their punitive potential and increases the pressure and stress associated with learning within a graded system.

Grading may not accurately reflect our children's learning. Some children experience anxiety during test taking and have trouble concentrating whether or not they know the material. Therefore, in classes in which teachers use tests to establish grades, these anxious test takers will be graded punitively because of their individual learning styles. Not all subjects are as easy to grade as others and therefore take on more arbitrary grading styles. Some teachers use tests as the primary measurement of children's learning. Others use cumulative assignment scores.

We all have individual strengths and particular interests. Some of our children are more naturally oriented toward logical thinking: math, science, and so on. Others are more creative and their strengths lie in the arts, music, and language. Grading does not differentiate. It does not reflect strengths. An A is an A, a B is a B, regardless of how these grades were established. Grades, regardless of the subject, are then compiled and averaged into a grade point average, a GPA. The GPA is used as a master grade for use in judging and comparing our children to one another.

Grades carry punitive potential in and of themselves. Attaching monetary value on increases this negative potential, thus increasing pressure on our children and taking away from the joy of learning.

Learn more about this author, Sara Mcgrath.
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