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Money for Grades

Celeste Owens

I feel sorry for people whose parents reward them with monetary gifts for every "A" they bring home. Okay, maybe I don't really feel sorry for them. It could be my jealousy talking, since it has been nearly eight years, four months, 2 weeks and 1 day since I was last given money for good grades. It's not that my grades haven't been up to my family's standards, but my mother decided that rewarding me with $5 for every A or B was like encouraging a bad habit. She saw it becoming a dependency, like when an infant sucks his thumb for too long and grows into an adolescent with an oral affixation. She was convinced she was corrupting me with bribes.

But I know seniors in high school who still get money for grades.

My friend Lauren Sepolen cut a deal with her parents who feared that senioritis would make her start slacking off in school. They agreed to pay her. And we're not talking chump change.

How much have your parents offered you and for what?

Lauren: Fifty dollars for each "A".

How much are you expecting to gain?

Lauren:I figure I can pull quite a few A's.

Quite a few hundred dollars?

Lauren:Exactly.

What do you feel about students who get paid to get good grades?

Lauren:I think it's a terrible idea, I don't think it should be a motivating factor. I think it's really pathetic when kids need to be encouraged to get good grades with money.

But that's not stopping Lauren from taking the cash so she can run off to Europe this summer.

Lauren: I can't help it, I just have to sell out this time.

Most teens I know would gladly sell out if their parents gave them the opportunity. But there is still a stigma around it. The students I asked think it's a ridiculous idea. They thought it seemed like a good ploy for little kids, but teenagers are a different story. Even the parents I asked thought it was a little suspicious, like my teacher Mr. Dan Loman who has three daughters in high school.

Dan Loman: I do my best to discourage it.

Do your daughters have friends who get paid for their grades?

Dan Loman: Yes they do… they get a little jealous. They used to ask me how come they couldn't make money to get good grade, but I've just never done it.

Do you allow your daughters to work and attend school?

Dan Loman: Yes, I do.

Maybe that's the catch. Many of my classmates' parents don't allow them to work, afraid that along with a paycheck will come bad report cards. Lauren Sepolen doesn't have a job, and her parents' bribes are her only source of income.

I may be a former beneficiary of grade bribery, but I've matured since I got my last 5 dollar bill for a good grade. Now that I'm in my last year of high school, I see that if the education system was set up differently, kids might do better at learning. But maybe there's another lesson here. Maybe there's something wrong with trying to squeeze learning into the same box as say, paying workers to get a job done. The two are not the same. Parents and teachers should worry…By paying us for grades, are they really helping us to be successful down the road, at college and in our jobs? If we always need money to do a good job, what kind of contribution to society can we really make in the long run?

In Berkeley, I'm Celeste Owens for Marketplace.