Am I imagining the trend that our culture is promoting "entitlement"?

It seems like a spoiled attitude to expect that material rewards are the end result of every endeavor. We're not training puppies to perform; we're teaching humans to think.

Our approval and encouragement should be the only extrinsic motivator, and the students' feeling of accomplishment and mastery should be the intrinsic motivator. All the candy and dollars in the world won't develop a sense of self esteem. That's why paying for grades won't work in the long run.

Accomplishment and satisfaction are the biggest motivators.

Take, for example, teachers... do we work for the big bucks or because we want to make a difference?

I am the lead snowboard field trip director at our school. We are working on a program where students can go to the local ski resort if all classes have passing grades. Students must have teachers sign off on a sheet of paper stating that the student has sufficient grades (c's or above). However, I do not agree with the idea of recieving money for doing well on an exam.

Rewards work - would you work your job for no reward/no pay? We work for pay & for the good feelings of having done a good job. Education is the "job" for our students, so extrinsic, tangible pay/rewards makes good sense. As these rewarded students continue to succeed & mature, they'll transition to intrinsic rewards coupled with "pay," just as we did.

A meaningful reward is one that is earned.

Dangling a target, a goal or a reward in front of an adult or child destroys their need to look within for their strength. If cheating does exist, a reward is it, since we are cheating the recipient of the external reward. Please read page 21 of "Understanding Variation" by Donald Wheeler. When a target is present there are three paths you can take. Students are smart. Which will they pick?

Please read "The Freedom Writers Diary" If the learning you offer is meaningful the student, adult or child, will strive from within. I have experienced Erin's students.

The need for external rewards is direct evidence of educational failure. It is the destroyer of dreams.

Some incentives are okay - for example our school (K-6) rewards students who have at least a 70% in all subjects, have 70% of their homework turned in, and have not had behavioral problems. First quarter we had a movie party and second quarter we took them roller-skating. Neither incentive was a "big" prize but it did reward those students who were doing their job. We also don't punish students who struggle in one subject but are doing their best work. This type of incentive was already established when I came to my school. I probably wouldn't have advocated for it when it was started -but I don't mind it.
I do not agree with ipods or cash type incentives especially for passing tests. Granted it's hard to motivate many students but in a "give me world" things like wanting to pass a test has to come from a personal drive. Students have to want to pass because they know the importance of understanding the information and how it will affect their future. It takes a large group of people to instill this in students including PARENTS, all teachers (k-12), and the community. So until all these people have the same goal in mind, some/many students will still have the "Gimmes".

The idea of the question is nonsense, the question itself begs to be asked. Students understand, because we tell them enough times, that school will have something to do with their future fortunes.
That said, when we get to intrinsic or extrinsic concepts a point is missing. We do not permit internal values to be produced in young people. We teach to an academic cause, when many of our students could care less about academics. We have stopped offering all vocational, manual and many technical arts in our schools. Then we mandate attendance at cram schools. Get it?! The idea doesn't register until we begin to ask what is important in child rearing, and what role do we want to have the school play as an adjunct to child rearing. Right now we are too many things to too many people, and now you are talking about being an allowance giver to--just amaze me edutopia.

I teach in a 9-12 high school in south central Kansas. Most of our students are on free and reduced food programs. I would estimate that perhaps 3% of our total student population wants to learn anything and are willing to do what it takes to get there. They don't have a reason to learn. They are trying to survive, plain and simple. All the poverty-based information out there rings clear here. Perhaps if we could give them real incentives to learn, and not just time off for good grades, like enrichment programs, we'd have a chance.

As early as possible in the education game students must know that they are responsible for their own learning. Once this is accomplished, rewards come through the joy of learning and learning how to learn. Monetary rewards would only be useful to a school in the case of standardized assessments to satisfy the adequate yearly progress mandates of NCLB. Why in this case? Because these tests have nothing to do with learning and are necessary only to measure proficiency levels at certain grade levels and to punish schools and districts that come up short; they do not pay an iota of attetion to the individual student. What a novel and ludicrous notion!

I work in a school in the UK that uses that gives cash to students as an incentive to pass their GCSEs (Final exams at 16). All students are given targets for each subject. We then give them £10 for every one they hit and a further £10 for every grade above they achieve target.
Although I'm Vice Principal, I loathe the scheme. Apart from the obvious argument that it takes away the intrisic value of learning and demeans/devalues the whole school process, the students don't even think about the incentive until after the exam. I can go up to any student in the school and ask them to what extent it is influencing them in their revision and I can guarantee not one will answer in the positive. I should mention that we don't pay for this, it is a local govenment funded community initiative, which is meant to encourage young people to continue in education. "only if we're paid" cry the students!!

What a joke on education! If that is what it takes to be successful, obvisouly your school district has a warped sense of hard work and success.