I was sitting here thinking about the way that children are raised in this day and age. Now don't get me wrong I am guilty of a lot of the things that I am going to talk about. We all want to give our children everything that we didn't have as kids and want to be able to give them more than we had. Is this right or wrong? Are the children growing up now going to get use to the fact that they are given everything and not have to work for what they want?
I know that I give my children everything that they want, if I am able to. I probably give them more than they deserve, but I want to be that parent that doesn't have to tell their children no. My children are both A-B honor roll and do very well in school, so I reward them for their accomplishments. Is this wrong? I want them to know that doing good in school is something that they need to strive for and I reward them with gifts when they do so.
But is this setting them up for failure when they become older? The younger adults, I will call them adults even though they do not act like it, that I work with have no sense of work ethic. Most either come to work late, do not show up, or work as little as possible to get by. Will my children act this way? How do I instill in them that working hard for what you want, gets you to where you want? Am I doing this by the way that I reward them for their good grades? Should I stop and just tell them that good grades are expected of them and not reward them? Am I doing the right thing?
I wonder about that, too. I run into a number of students each semester who believe they are "entitled" to make an A in my course because they turn in all of the work--it doesn't matter if the work meets my standards. I also have a number of students who want me to "give" them grades they haven't earned, and, if I don't, it's my fault.
ReplyDeleteI tried to make my children understand that some things have to be earned--grades, for example, and other special things. I think they learned that lesson.
K. Smith
Eng. 226