Your Child’s Success: Up to the Government or Up to You?

I travel around the country during the summers and give a lot of presentations on behavioral change.  Although not part of my presentation, one issue always comes up: Why isn’t the government doing more to help our children?

Generally I brush this statement off as I don’t want to offend anyone, but my real thoughts on this matter are simply this: Do you want the government responsible for your child’s behavior?  I know I don’t. 

Texas Republican Representative Joe Deshotel is proposing a bill where funds from $6 billion in federal stimulus money would actually pay students to make better grades.  Freshmen could earn $50 for each "A," $35 for each "B," and $20 for each "C" in English, math, science or social studies. They would get half their money at the end of each grading period and the other half at graduation.  You can read about this proposed bill here.

I think that most of us could agree that our government should only go so far with the involvement in our lives and the lives of our children.  Providing free education for all U.S. citizens is one thing, but actually shaping behavior is something quite different.  Additionally, because each child differs so greatly from one another, would a one-size-fit’s-all approach even work?  Probably not.  Would the government be able to provide the resources to address each child’s individual needs and ensure school success for all?  Again, probably not, or at least not without significant expense to taxpayers.

As a psychologist with a behavioral orientation, I do support the notion of rewarding desired behaviors.  This is in fact a core component of the treatment I offer.  However, rewards are offered in conjunction with skills and tools to help the child succeed.  Children will only be successful with just rewards when they know how to succeed but simply lack the desire.  This is a dangerous assumption that students simply lack the motivation to succeed and all you need to do is pay them to perform.  Many students I have worked with have all the desire in the world to succeed, but they lack the skills and tools to do so.

Another danger here is that rewards are not offered without building an overall desire to achieve some larger goal.  The most effective use of rewards is to utilize them to create a healthy preoccupation with a larger, specifically identified target such as “I want to get into Law School” or “I want to become a Doctor.”  Just paying for grades is not an effective strategy for big picture items unless you work with the student to develop their long term goals and steps they need to take to make their dreams a reality.   

The biggest danger here is that paying for students to make good grades out of federal funds is ultimately contributing to the notion that the government should have the primary responsibility of shaping our children’s behavior.  I believe that our mindset should be, “What more can I do to influence my child” and not, “Why isn’t the government doing more to help my child.”  The latter of the two viewpoints is not healthy or productive to your child’s long term success.