Cursive and Glittery Stickers

When extrinsic rewards like gold stars, stickers and prizes are used to motivate children, they experience quite a few sad results. In addition to diminished motivation for the activity, knowing that there’s a reward at the end actually slows their task down.

I’ve experienced this with my students in the classroom any time I try to bring in a reward system. For example, one of our daily works is practicing cursive. I write the next letter on in their cursive notebooks while they watch me. They then retreat to their writing nooks and fill up the page with graceful cursive handwriting; using that letter and previously learned letters. Over the years, my students have loved adding cursive to their daily schedules. Many of them start their days with it; soft music plays as they’re totally immersed, creating written art, beautifully.

I had a great experience that showed me the pitfalls of ‘rewards’ for work. Having found a whole sticker book in the back of my drawer, I decided to add a glittery animal sticker to one of my student’s completed cursive page. (Usually, upon a completed page, students look forward to getting the next letter.) I had observed that he was was taking longer to complete his cursive pages than other students and didn’t choose it as often. So, in an attempt to motivate him, I thought adding that glittery tiger to his completed page would get him into it! He was so excited and loved it! When he showed it off to the other students, naturally they also now clamored to get a sticker on their completed cursive pages.

I was aware that this was an extrinsic reward, and aware, from my bhakti training, that extrinsic rewards are to be avoided in developing a bhakti-based classroom environment and relationship with students. Still, with conventional school traditions all around us, I thought ‘Eh, one sticker can’t hurt.” I had convinced myself to try it out.

At first, yes, their eagerness to get those cursive pages did increase. But it was short lived. Like three days. They began to rush through their work; producing sloppy letters. The state of flow (where a child is completely absorbed in his work) was de-activated. Before they would they would take pride in how their letters dropped and flowed and stayed within the lines; now that attention was gone. Their minds were distracted by the procurement of a glittery sticker on the page that they could show off to their friends. Not only did their interest in the cursive writing wane, but the group slowed down in mastering their letters. The students who were absorbed in completing page after page of cursive words - now they would do one page, get their sticker and be done. Students began choosing the work less and less. This collective disinterest was an eye-opening and sad experience for me.

After waiting a few weeks of observation, I decided to stop. In circle time, I openly discussed what had happened. Their self-awareness and own observations were amazing to hear. They were also aware that their cursive zone had been interrupted. We began to discuss all kinds of related topics; should we be paid for chores; do you get money for good grades; what areas should rewards be implemented and which areas not. One girl said: Actually, when I get a reward for reading books, I get really annoyed because I just want to read the book because I love to read.” That discussion reminded me to stay away from rewarding tasks that give an innate sense of fulfillment in completing them.

Once the sticker system for cursive pages was removed, unfortunately it took them some time to develop the interest and flow again. I learned a hard lesson as a teacher that year.

As parents and teachers, we must be on guard to safe-guard our children from bad habits that destroy their natural desire to learn. Activating this desire to learn is an integral part of the bhakti-learning environment. Their educational growth is their primary service to Krishna at this time in life; by staying away from that which destroys this state of full absorption, we protect their bhakti creepers.

Here’s an excerpt from Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius that proves that extrinsic rewards blocks the acceleration that normally occurs with practice.

“To investigate whether such effects hold only in the laboratory, Deci (1971) went on to do a field experiment. This time the concern was not how long people freely chose to engage in a task, but rather, how long a creative task, writing newspaper headlines, took them to complete. Eight undergraduates who wrote headlines for a college newspaper participated, and their average time for writing a headline was measured. For the reward condition, four of the headline writers were offered 50 cents per headline written over a 3-week period. The average time each participant took to write headlines during the 3 weeks before the reward period was compared with their time during the 3 weeks after the reward period. The findings suggested that people who had not been rewarded were better off: Whereas members of the control group were writing headlines significantly faster during the last period, those in the experimental group were writing them at the same pace. The provision of an external reward had blocked the acceleration that normally occurs with practice.

Lillard, Angeline Stoll. Montessori (p. 181). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. ”