Education Experimentation

You use whatever incentives work....carrot AND stick approach...
We paid our kids for every A, didn't pay for B's, and they paid us for C's....
But we knew they were capable of A's. We would have modified the plan if they were only capable of B's.

It started in 7th grade, and the amount increased every year. By the time they were in grade 12 (about 20 years ago) they were getting $20 per A, (or B in an advanced/honors class), and a bonus if they got all A's.

It worked for us. Both kids got small academic scholarships, both graduated from college, both are well employed in a stable job environment. We paid their college expenses.

The goal of parenting is to prepare them for life on their own. God forbid they should want to come back and live with us, along with their kids, pets, noise, and drama.....so prepare them the best you can.

Lots of people will say they can't afford to do that. I say BULL for most of them. The ones that come to mind are those who have plenty of "toys" they don't need, but won't invest in their children's futures..

You reap what you sow....

You'd may be surprised but parents are the absolute number 1 reason of why a child does well in school.
Parents have to believe that education is a worthwhile endeavor and children take their cues from the parent.

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The level of involvement of the parent is probably the most important factor, but not all children learn the same or are capable of performing at the same level regardless of the approach to teaching them. Every individual develops at a different pace with a different set of challenges to overcome. There is no one-size-fits-all way to teach children. It could be argued that only a small set of valuable skills are developed in schools. Of course the focus should be reading and writing and mathematics. That goes without saying. But a child should be encouraged to follow their talents and abilities into a career that makes them happy and productive. It is not necessarily making the most money that should be a motivating factor. That leads to miserable people doing jobs that they hate just to maintain a lifestyle that they have become accustomed too. People are much happier when they feel productive, valuable, and masterful.

The education system has always been an environment of experimentation. The goal has been to make every child the same with similar learning styles and skill levels. That isn't possible. Only the children who are wired to function in a certain way succeed in school. These children excel while the rest struggle. The rest are valuable as well but in different ways. They are artists, scientists, psychologists, and various types of creative thinking individuals. We should be encouraging our kids to embrace their differences rather than trying to force them all to be the same. What do we do when a kid doesn’t learn the same as others; we call them learning disabled or ADHD instead of simply recognizing that they learn and think differently.