I recently had a humorous experience with my nine year old son.
He is a very intelligent boy who was carrying all "A's" with the exception of spelling where he was carrying an "F". I was getting frustrated because we were studying 10 hours per week and he just couldn't get the words to stick. So, I asked him if there was anything he really wanted that could be a prize for getting the grade up. He thought and then replied, "Dad, I really need a cellular phone." I have to admit to being taken back by the idea of a child using a cellular phone. Seriously, who could be calling him? But I agreed that if he would raise his grade to a "C" I would get him a cellular phone. He then asked, "Will it have texting?" I said, "Sure."
At the end of nine weeks, he had raised his grade from an "F" to a "B". So, we went out to our local superstore and purchased a cellular phone with texting. I spent the afternoon picking the least expensive calling plan I could find. Then I showed him how it worked. I showed him how the keyboard would type messages and he could send them to other people's telephones. Shortly afterwards, I received a text on my cellular phone. It said, "dus it werk?" I had to conclude that it didn't work as well as I hoped. Guess we will keep working on that spelling.
This is a great lesson though. When the only reason someone is doing something is for a reward, once they get the reward they typically go back to doing things the way they did them before.
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