Charlotte Rayn - Incentivizing Good Grades -04.... -

The Price of an A

“It’s just economics, Lottie,” her father said, tapping the laminated chart he’d pinned to the fridge. “Incentives modify behavior. You’ll see.”

They got an A+.

She wanted to say it worked. She had the sweater to prove it. But something stopped her. She thought of the late nights not driven by curiosity, but by cash. The way she’d started avoiding challenging classes. The quiet dread that maybe she wasn’t getting smarter — just better at performing.

Her father kept the chart on the fridge, but after that semester, he added a new line at the bottom: Bonus for teaching Dad something new — $100. Charlotte Rayn - Incentivizing Good Grades -04....

But by week six, the cracks showed.

For Assignment 04, she and Mateo argued that while rewards could boost short-term effort, they eroded intrinsic motivation. They cited studies, added graphs, even interviewed her father (who grudgingly admitted, “Well, when you put it that way…”). The Price of an A “It’s just economics,

Charlotte smiled. Some incentives, she realized, were worth keeping. Would you like a different version — darker, more humorous, or set in a specific genre (sci-fi, thriller, etc.)? Just let me know.