An Interview with Barbara Coloroso
Last week I spent .5 hour on the telephone with Barbara to get her perspectives on using incentives/rewards in the classroom. Barbara has written a bevy of books on parenting and forming ethics in children.
You’ll find several of quotes from Barbara in an upcoming article in Children’s Ministry Magazine on the pitfalls of using rewards. However, Barbara provided more insights that would fit in a 2000 word piece.
My biggest take away from the conversation was a renewed commitment to make loving God and others are the core of our ethic. (Yeah, I know, I’ve merely rediscovered Jesus. Yippee!) Here’s the rub with offering rewards: We inadvertantly teach children to focus on “What’s in it for me?” Rewards introduce free market principles that shift our children’s focus off of imitating God’s love to “getting mine.” A relationship with God is understood transactionally and not as unilateral grace.
Much has been written about the inversion of Christianity– that instead of being concerned about bringing God’s kingdom on earth, we’ll focused on being individually blessed an prosperous. It would be simplistic and silly to blame this reversal on reward systems in Sunday Schools.
But it would be shortsighted not to consider that our token ecomonies don’t provide mental maps that reinforce what Martin Luther described as our “inward bent.”
GREAT point once again Larry!!! Love the added weight to our veteran children’s minister’s bias! Also notice the concept of SERVICE as the main reason for all our gifts and work: Mark 10:45, Matthew 5:16 and 1 Peter 4:10 – 11!!! Hard to SERVE when we are in it for ourselves!!!!
Very interesting. I’m writing from Singapore here. Got to learn of many great CM blogs here. Excited to learn as we lack resources or community here. We use rewards in our kids church more for motivation and also to a certain extent for the “fun” element of the ministry. We run a gift shop every quarter where kids redeem with their reward vouchers. Perhaps its an old thing there but just wondering what your thoughts are of doing it this way? Any takeaway for us?
Thanks for making this comment and directing me to the next CM mag for more from Barbara. I am constantly having people recommend using ‘incentives’ (otherwise called bribes – as the ‘joking’ goes). I haven’t felt comfortable with doing that for many reasons and it’s really great to read your thoughts on it here. Sometimes it feels a bit lonely when you go against the crowd – so thanks!
Rags,
Consider replacing rewards with surprise trips to the gift shop for free gifts. Perhaps celebrate a glasses great behavior (without telling them in advance that there’s a possibility of reward). Or teach on God’s unmerited grace and model it with a surprise.
I’m write a curriculum for a summer Backyard Adventure. I’ve stole a back from Group and bought toys that theme to the lesson. Kids will just be giving the gifts with no strings attached.
Also– keep the lesson fun because Joy increases the brain’s capacity to learn.
I’d recommend Eric Jensens’s “Brain Based Learning” as a readable primer on how the brain learns.
And Barbara’s book “Kids are Worth It” reminds us about appropriate motivators as well.
Rags, btw– great website. I stumbled it upon it yesterday!
Hi Larry, thanks. I’ll look into your suggestions of increasing surprises instead of rewards even though I feel there’s room for rewards too.
Those books u mentioned are worth checking once I get the current list out of the way. :-p
Glad you like my website & looking forward to get more pointers from you guys.
kids get stickers in school, awards for great homework, ribbons for sports, trophies for accomplishments. Kids are who they are and you can not change them. It is better to come from a place of common ground and of validation into their life. Candy, prizes, or “incentives” will never change who God is or how he responds to them or even how they will respond to them. Giving a kid a blow pop because you are proud of him memorizing the scripture verse is simply speaking their language. (especially when hugs etc are not the way to go)Giving kids an incentive I don’t believe teaches kids a secret underlying message about Christ it sends them a message about the people who are communicating Christ to them.
Sixty Minutes did a piece this past Sunday on 20 somethings in the workplace. They said parenting them with excessive rewards for everything has lead them to expect praise and rewards for simply doing their job. “What’s in it for me?” mentality is changing the way companies manage their workforce. They indicated that the motivation and reward business has mushroomed because of the demand for gifts and incentives in the workplace.
Sure lends credence to the agreement against rewards.
I accidently marked a reply as spam. Sorry. To whomever posted wanting to get in touch with Barbara, I did not save the phone number I used to interview her. I recommend finding her publicist or assistant from her website. If that doesn’t work email me and I’ll contact Children’s Ministry Magazine.