Honestly, most children do not have a good disposition toward academic learning and success. The fact is that many kids just want to get through school knowing just enough to get by. There are some students that really want to learn but they are the exception and not the norm. Motivation is one of the biggest problems facing students today. Many of them don’t want to learn because they do not see a real need for education. Regardless, students still must be taught their basic reading, writing and math skills.
One way that mentors, parents, tutors and even teachers can get kids to learn is by the using tricks to bribe them. Let’s clear something up before we discuss this topic. We are not telling mentors, parents and educators that they constantly need to fool and trick their kids into learning. This is not a good approach to take because the day will come when this method will not work.
Sooner or later a child will figure out what is going on. Once they do, they will even rebel against this type of learning. Ultimately, a child must have a desire to learn. If they don’t have this desire, then they will fail regardless of how much you bribe them. So, bribing works great for a short time and in certain circumstances but don’t try to use this process as a long term teaching method. It will not work for this purpose. Now that we cleared this up, we can discuss a more useful way for you to bribe a child or student.
Candy and Prizes as a Reward for Learning
Many young students like candy, cakes, cookies and prizes. Kids are self-centered enough that they will sacrifice their dislike for learning and studying to get these prizes. As a matter of fact, they will learn just enough about a particular subject or lesson just to get by. It is not that these kids are really learning the material, they’re just doing enough to get the reward. This method is a great tool that many teachers use to get kids motivated for a quiz or to learn material quickly. However, it just does not have enough sustaining power to keep a kid really interested in learning. A lot of kids will also try to manipulate their parents with this method by mimicking answers and not really understanding them. Here, taking help from a tutor serves the purpose who has relevant experience of handling children and understand their learning as well as the behavioral pattern. Teachers make great tutors because they would know what amount of reward at what time is right for the child.
Fear-Based Bribery
The Today Show did a story about how not to bribe your kids for the purpose of learning and motivation. This report by the today show mentioned something very interesting. The report stated that kids only change their behavior through coercion, negotiation and fear. This was an interesting comment for many reasons. While this statement might not be completely true there is a lot of truth in it.
Once again, kids are people and like most people, they will not change unless they forced to do so. When it comes to bribing kids to do things, this approach presents a child with an option to change their behavior for learning in order to keep something they value. As much as people do not like to admit this, fear is a big motivator for changing people’s behavior and getting them to learn.
You can get your child to learn by taking away certain rights and privileges if they do not learn academic material. Feared based bribery can be as useful as reward-based bribery. Remember, parents can bribe kids by withholding things from them that they value. This would include things such as restricting their WiFi access at home or taking away their smartphones for a long time. Mentors can do this as well to the people they lead. Fear-based bribery is effective for this purpose.
Some Teachers Recommend Making Vague Promises to get Kids to Learn
There are some educators that recommend making promises to kids as a means to bribe them when it comes to learning. The promises should be vague enough for you to dismiss if you really don’t feel like following through with it. The point of this method is to get students to understand that they should work hard for themselves and to increase in knowledge. They shouldn’t do these things just to get something in return.
Mentors and parents, you too can take the same approach with helping children to learn certain lessons in life. The thing you should do is to make sure that the kids are not doing things just to do them. Truthfully, a deeper reason must be the guiding principle behind learning other than immediate gratification from outside rewards or things. If not, a child will never fully develop in life and reach their full potential.
