Offering money for getting good grades - a good idea? Some parents offer their school-age children money for each high grade (mark) they get in school. Do you think this is a good idea? - As the academic environment has become increasingly competitive nowadays, more and more parents are rewarding their children with money when they receive good grades. In my opinion, this approach can cause some serious troubles, in both children's' behavior and psychological status. I will explore these two reasons in the following essay. To begin with, incentivizing children with money under the condition that they earn high grades may cause them to cheat on exams. If earning great scores seems like an impossible goal, children are likely to cheat to get the reward. What I witnessed in high school is a compelling example of this. When I was in the second year of high school, I had a classmate, Andy, who came from a wealthy family. Andy was not particularly smart and, in fact, he had the most trouble comprehending physics. At that time, the new Macbook was just in the market, and Andy wanted it badly. Once his parents were aware of his desire, they wanted to encourage him to try harder on physics by offering him money contingent on his performance on the final exam. Unfortunately, instead of studying harder, Andy cheated on the exam with small notes and got caught by the teacher. Not only did he fail to earn good grades, but his moral standards were also compromised. Second of all, motivating students to do well in school by giving them money can result in too much pressure for them. In some cases, students may wrongly link monetary values with self worth, and hence put tremendous pressure on themselves. My sister's personal experience is an evident example of this. When my sister was preparing for her college exam, my grandparents offered her cash whenever she scored above the 90th percentile on mock exams. One time, she stumbled on a mock exam and scored slightly under the target, so she did not receive cash rewards from my grandparents. She became extremely depressed and even started to doubt herself. The effect was so negative that I am most certain that the cash reward in the first place was a complete mistake. In summary, I think providing children with money to encourage them on academic performance is inherently wrong. It will very likely motivate them to cheat, or even worse, adversely affect their psychological status.