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Providing immediate and tangible rewards for academic achievement only fuels the need for instantaneous gratification that adults are so fond of condemning in young people. A developed intellect and wide knowledge base will have fiscal rewards that amount to far more than pocket change. By dangling the cheap and flashy incentive of immediate cash, we blind students to the greater prize awaiting the true scholar.

Students need to learn that education is a long-term investment. If they view learning as a means to quick cash, they will study with only "the test" in mind and not take the time to make connections between subjects or retain information after the final. Worse, they will quickly become unmotivated when colleges or trade schools provide no such instantaneous rewards.

Because I was not a reward-driven student, but rather a knowledge-hungry scholar, I recall a fascinating article from the introductory psychology course I took as a sixteen your old college freshmen (over twelve years ago). In the study, the researchers had their volunteer subjects perform some exceedingly dull and pointless physical task. I believe it had something to do with putting pegs in holes, and would be insufficient to amuse anyone over the age of five. One group of volunteers got paid for their efforts, while a second group got only a "thanks" at the end. Both groups filled out a survey regarding their enjoyment of the task.

Now, to be perfectly honest, my powers of reasoning would lead me to believe that those who were paid enjoyed the task more. However, I will humbly admit to being entirely wrong. In fact, the paid volunteers found the task unpleasant and tedious, while the unpaid subjects found it somewhat enjoyable and relaxing. As the professor gave this lecture, my mind wandered back in time to revisit a junior high school English class where we read of the irascible Tom Sawyer conning his friends into painting the fence. By making them think that painting the fence was fun (rather than attempting to bribe them), he had his playmates all offering him their toys and treasures in exchange for a turn at painting. Both the psychology study and the down to earth wisdom of Mark Twain affirm that humans are more motivated by pleasure than by money. What's more, when one is being paid to do a task, it automatically becomes distasteful.

When there is money at stake, any activity can become stressful. Writing an article for a Helium contest becomes an exercise in frustration rather

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