Have we ever stopped to consider the role and impact of rewards in education? How would you answer this question if asked to reply without taking thinking time to come up with a response? I did this little exercise for myself and came up with a long list of negatives before I even considered the positives!
My first consideration was in relation to how much rewards are an intrinsic, but often unquestioned, part of education. It didn’t take too much to ponder on, as the following effects can easily be seen in a child’s behaviour in the classroom – both academically and socially, in the playground, in school carnivals – in fact in every aspect of the school day – all as a result of using rewards.
The drive to be the best, recognition, competition, comparison, judgement, winning, losing, misplaced honour, envy, manipulation, measurement, control, pressure, blackmail, conforming, illusion and disillusionment, individuality, and loss of friendship, loss of self-esteem, loss of self-worth… are all prolific in education and certainly not limited to those afore-mentioned.
So, if these are the negative behaviours children are exhibiting as a result of using reward systems, what are the positives and or are there in fact, any? Is the concept of ‘motivation’ – the only positive I could come up with – more overarching than all the easily recognisable negative effects of using rewards?
The use of rewards in the school environment has always been something of a dilemma for me both as a classroom teacher and when in the role of School Principal. This dilemma also crossed over to using rewards in the home environment and, in fact, the way rewards are used throughout all of society. We reward our toddlers with ice-creams/lollies if they are ‘good’ when we are out shopping, we reward them on their first day at kindergarten with stickers, merit certificates, table points, ribbons, medals, cups and this continues right through their school years and then starts, albeit in a different reward system, during their working life through incentives (usually money or holiday trips) to be the best, to work harder, to reach the top or to bring in higher profits.
Have we ever stopped to ponder on why rewards play such an all-consuming role in how we raise our children, teach our students and how we work as adults?
I often contemplated why we rewarded children for completing classroom tasks and activities, for behaving in the expected manner (adhering to school rules), for expressing ‘nice manners’ or for being kind to others and why it was such an enigma for me.
After all, isn’t the concept of rewards such a world-wide way of teaching and bringing up children, so why would I even begin to question the use of them?
Deep down I knew why it was such a Catch-22 for me, as I could feel the unease in my body every time, I used the school reward system in the classroom. I had clocked that they worked momentarily, however I was certainly aware the use of rewards really didn’t change a child’s behaviour or attitude in the long term. Rewards seemed to me to be instant gratification and a signal to others to say: “Look at me, I have just been rewarded so I am better than you!”
Is it now time to stop this unwise way of using rewards in our education system?
Perhaps to do this we need to consider the following quandaries:
What is really the goal of rewarding children?
What is it that we are actually rewarding?
Through giving rewards, what way of being-in-life is it that we are actually manipulating, even controlling, a child to conform to?
Why do we, as teachers and parents, feel the need to subscribe to this prescriptive way of connecting to our students?
Do we treat children as puppets of multiple reward systems?
Motivation – we know this can come from intrinsic and extrinsic traits – have we really delved into how a child feels when they achieve through loving their inner being - not by receiving an award?
Are we reflecting to our students that competition is to be valued above personal self-worth?
Looking at just the last quandary as a point of example… have we lost all sense of dismissing a child’s self-worth above what they do, what they achieve, and what they exhibit when they are not being true to themselves? Should we, as teachers and parents – the custodians of a child’s early years of growth and development – be more concerned with nurturing our children to understand who they are on the inside, before we even contemplate rewarding them for their outside behaviours?
Have we have not bastardised the way children are being brought up to be controlled, manipulated and to conform to a society that has lost its way in knowing, and even in recognising, that we are truly loving and caring human beings, and in this knowing - claiming WHO WE ARE and not what we do - as a more harmonious way to live with ourselves and in society?
What has happened to the value we place on a child knowing and feeling their innate self-worth, their inner being, of bringing love and joy to all they do, rather than looking outside of themselves to affirm that they are doing the right and good thing?
Is it not time to consider the amazing way children respond when we nurture the harmony and joy they naturally are, when true to themselves first and foremost, with what they do, coming well after that?
I have witnessed firsthand that when we nurture first, children become more engaged with life, grow up with more love, have a natural curiosity and awe of our universe, and interact with a respect and care for all others. Is it so foreign to expect that we can pave the way for children to learn to live in true friendship and brotherhood rather than live with constant competition, comparison and judgment of others?
Is it not time to become totally aware of the fact that we tend to look outside ourselves for fuelling our needs for recognition and identification from others?
Is it not time for us to know that true education starts with nurturing the child’s inner being – the joy and love they naturally feel within their own bodies - in advance of any other education?
Is it not time to be honest in admitting that the current reward systems we have manufactured to play such an important role in teaching and raising children are not actually working? And in this, is it not time to bring focus to the fact that nurturing a child’s inner being is the only true way forward in bringing about any true change in education… beyond being recognised and identified only through what they do and are currently rewarded by, and measured in?