For the Sake of Learning?

Okay, I'll admit it. I have bribed my kids. No - I bribe my kids. "Eat all your vegetables. Then you can have some ice cream....If the basement is clean, maybe we'll go to the movies."  Then something occurred this week that really irritated me. And it occurred it to me, "What kind of lessons are we teaching our kids if we constantly dangle carrots in front of their cute pug noses?"

Our awesome school (and I truly believe in its awesomeness) kindly requested donations to incent students to boost ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) scores. Most of us reacted with a &*$? Give students stuff to do well on their tests? Shouldn't they want to do well? For the sake doing well?  After visiting with a teacher friend, apparently this philosophy doesn't work. And our sacred school is on a watch list because of the low scores in this particular area. And after thinking about the issue, how different is this act than bribing with ice cream or movies? Not sure.

Last Sunday, our family was having dinner at Applebee's. And talking about getting As and Bs...taking tests and what not. I asked the kids, "So when you miss something on a test, do you know why? Or do you make sure you find out why?"  Cole continued to chow down on his cheeseburger. (I think he had lost interest in the conversation by then.) Alex shrugged and picked up the dessert menu. But my hubby aptly replied, "I just assumed that if I missed an answer, I had guessed wrong."  Touche.

All this talk has worn Percy out.

Perhaps I truly am the geekiest of all geeks. But there's something about the word "academia" that invigorates my soul. And I enjoy (yes, enjoy) the challenge of the TEST! And to see the results? To see if possibly, just possibly, you could achieve a perfect score? What could bring more self-satisfaction than that?  Certainly not an I-tune card. But what do I know? I'm a just a geeky Mom...who needs to bribe her kids to clean their rooms.