I just came across this New York Times opinion piece about bribing a child to read… and while my initial reaction was pretty strongly negative, I’m trying to back up and think it through.
The piece opens:
This summer, I paid my 12-year-old daughter $100 to read a book. As far as mom maneuvers go, it was definitely last ditch and the size of the payout was certainly excessive. I can’t say I am proud — but I am extremely satisfied. Because the plan worked. It worked so well, I’d suggest other parents of reluctant readers open their wallets and bribe their kids to read, too.
I can relate… to an extent.
My two children (now adults) are polar opposites when it comes to reading. My daughter is an absolute, no-question-about-it, you’ll-pry-my-books-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands book worm. She’s never without a book… often, many books at the same time. Like me, at any given time she’ll have at least one physical or ebook in progress plus an audiobook… and sometimes even more. I’ve never had to push her to read. From the time she first realized she could get through a book on her own, she’s never looked back or slowed down.
On the other hand, my son has never — to the best of my knowledge — picked up a book just for fun. He’s read what he’s had to read for school. And every once in a while, if I’ve placed a book in his hands with just the right timing, he’s considered actually opening it up and reading it… but usually not. The last non-school-related books he read were the first three books of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series — but that was at least two years ago, and as far as I know, he hasn’t touched a single book since.
And let me point out once more — my kid is an adult. I can’t exactly threaten a 22-year-old with losing screen privileges or putting parental controls on his devices. He’s taking college courses and does the reading necessary for his classes, but that’s it. (He does still live in my house, which is probably why the lack of reading is so apparent to me.)
Reading for fun? He laughs at me and rolls his eyes when I suggest it.
Back to the New York Times essay. The idea of paying a kid $100 to read a book kind of makes my skin crawl. First of all, there’s the obvious element of privilege and financial status — offering this kind of cash to a child is clearly only for those who can shell out $100 without blinking an eye. But my focus today is really more about the bribery concept itself:
Why do we need to monetize reading? Shouldn’t reading be its own reward? Obviously, for book lovers, the answers is a resounding yes.
But how do we get our reluctant readers to pick up a book, for no other reason than to enjoy it? I don’t want to bemoan technology and how it’s destroying the youth of today. I love a good meme or cat video as much as the next person, and my husband routinely comments on my phone never leaving my hands. And yet, it’s also true that someone who loves to read will find the time and the attention to read… and someone who doesn’t have that innate love of reading simply will not.
After reading the essay, I briefly engaged in a thought exercise about trying to bribe my son. I know that if he’d only step away from his screens and put down the video game controllers, there’d actually be time in his day to spend at least a little while reading a book. To him, this just isn’t something that pulls him, and he has no motivation to do so. But if I dangled a cash incentive in front of him? Well, maybe.
And yet, the idea of actually offering money to get him to read is a huge turn-off.
Where does an incentive cross the line into bribery? We’re all familiar with library reading challenges that offer stickers and prizes for summer reading achievements, and I know many schools have read-a-thons and other competitions that tie reading to some sort of tangible reward. So why does offering cash strike me as a step too far? And yet, for my adult child, it’s really the only thing I could see tempting him. (Stickers will no longer cut it, alas.)
No, I’m not going to do it. But I do have a sneaking suspicion that if I actually did offer him $100, he’d be more than happy to comply.
I’m curious about other people with reluctant readers or non-readers in their lives? Do you offer incentives? Would you offer or have you ever offered cash? What’s your reaction to the NYT article?
I’d love to hear other people’s reactions on this! Please chime in and share your thoughts.
A final note: Upon finishing this post, I found a link to a post of mine from ten years ago about this exact topic — offering cash to my son to get him to read! My incentive plan topped out at $10 at that time… and as far as I recall, had no effect whatsoever. My offer of money for each book he read was not enough to actually tempt him. I’d completely forgotten about this post and the idea itself — probably because it went nowhere. Now, if I’d offered $100 per book… who knows???
Bookshelf Fantasies 