Awards and Rewards

When MYD first began, the boys in my classroom had been programmed out.  They had experienced all of the token economies, extrinsic motivators and punitive methods designed to inspire or coerce appropriate behavior.  In setting up our classroom structure, their first question was "What's in it for us?"  Naively, I replied, "The love of learning, the feeling of success, the satisfaction of achievement."  To my surprise, they didn't laugh and they didn't rebel.  They were, however, interested in how we could achieve that goal.  It became apparent in our discussions that my students needed a tangible measure for success.  Intrinsic motivation was a very difficult concept for my students.  We had elongated conversations about their individual passions and motivators outside of school.  The challenge was to segue those feelings of accomplishment that they felt in their avocations to success in school.

In the first several of years of implementation of MYD in a school-wide setting, schools already had reward systems in place.  Many of these systems were similar to the token economies we find in institutional care facilities.  Specific behaviors were generically assigned a value that could later bring a student tokens or rewards.  These tokens could then be utilized to buy products.  Occasionally, schools also offered the option for students to utilize their tokens for privileges.  This, the teachers felt, would help in maintaining order and discipline.  To accommodate this perception, schools were allowed to use MYD in the same fashion.  Over time, we discovered that most students lost interest in tangible rewards.  Many would hoard their tokens and, by the end of their school careers, could have bought out the store.

In accommodating the perception that tangible rewards were a necessity in order to give value to MYD, the schools were asked to set up two stores.  One offered tangible rewards e.g. pens, pencils, candy, and toys.  The other offered privileges e.g. sit at a back table with a friend, lunch with the teacher, and computer time.  Curiously, over time, the store with tangible rewards closed, thus saving the PTO a fortune.  The store with privileges also diminished in value over time.  The universal observation was that students performed within the structure of MYD without external motivators.

It has been reported through the years that some of our students, "don't care if they make their day."  And, yet, many of these students manipulate their points at day's end in order to make their day.  In schools in which the teachers have emphasized "doing one's best" whether they make their day or not and participate at an equal level when students assess themselves and accept feedback from others, the report of students "not caring" is minimal.  When the atmosphere in