A couple of days ago, as the test results came out, my son and a group of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready for the last-day-of-school party at McDonald's. "Jack got a laptop for getting straight A's, and Laurie got a cell-phone," one boy said. "Oh, yeah, and Sarah got an iPad, and she's only in third grade," said another. "And how about Brian? He got $10 for each A." I suddenly became concerned. These payoffs might get parents through grammar school, but what about high school and beyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cell-phone, and the DVD player? I saw the road ahead: _ I saw my comfortable lifestyle disappear before my eyes -- no more of those $5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No more organic anything! I started to feel surprised and nervous. Would every goal achieved by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade point average? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in this reward system: soccer goals, touchdowns? What about the orchestra? Would first chair pay more than second? I'd be penniless by eighth-grade graduation. "We never paid anything for good grades," said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. "He just did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that's about it." Don't you just hate that? We're all running around looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she's spending a few dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation. And what about the primary grades? What do these students get? "When the teacher asked if anyone got rewards for good grades, everyone in my class raised their hands and said they got ice cream cones ," said one third-grader. What's the best title for the passage?
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