Pay your Kids to Learn?

I read an article recently where the pros and cons of this idea were explored. I am one who did pay my children to learn - or, more precisely, I paid them to get good grades, which encouraged them to learn good study habits. I gave them small amounts of money for each A, and a straight A report card got them a bonus. Once they got to high school, they no longer got money for good grades, but they had already developed good study habits. By high school, they had chores around the house to earn money, or they had jobs. Learning to spend their own money since they were small has also been beneficial.

The pros in this article were as I described - that since education was meant to suit us for the work world, anyway, why not show how the incentive system works? But I think that the attitude toward the incentive has to be the right one, and it has to be stopped before the child learns ways to abuse it. One called it a bribe system, and indeed, if the parent uses this word with the kids, that's what it becomes. But when we say the focus is on learning good study habits, and the child knows this is the reason for the reward system, the whole attitude changes. Another problem is when parents make the rewards far greater than they should. Then it becomes a spoils system. A car as an incentive? While I've known some parents who won't let the kid drive unless the grades are at least a C average (insurance can be expensive!), rewarding with a car for good grades can certainly encourage a child to cheat.