so chana asked to do chumash because she wants to earn money. alfie, i'm coming around to your way of thinking...
she started off gung ho because she needs 2 more dollars to earn club penguin membership. we start on a new paskuk (1:30). she plans to do 3 pesukim because she wants money. i know that this is unrealistic for her, so i say, let's start and go as much as you want, and we'll see how it goes.
i tell her she doesn't need to read the pasuk on its own first because she said last time that she didn't want to read and then go back and translate, because she reads the word right before she translates.
she realized she wants to read because that earned her a "check" of which 3 earns her a dollar. so now she wants to do work that isn't useful just to get the check (i get it, alfie, i get it...).
i tell her no problem, she can read from the siddur and earn those checks just as easily.
she reads the word "uv'chol" and screams that she doesn't know what it is. i point to "u" and she says "and." "v" she says "in." "chol" i say "kol" and she says "all." then she screams she can't understand the next word.
i say read it. she says she read it in her mind. i'm not sure what expression i had on my face, but if it was anything like my thoughts, it said "gimme a break--are you kidding me." then she started crying that she's so thirsty and we are out of water bottles.
i offered her tap water and seltzer. no.
then she asked daddy if he would do reading with her. i said chumash has to be done before other work (another alfie no-no, i'm sure). she started crying how thirsty she is.
she will not drink.
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How do you square Alfie with the Rambam's description of extrinsic motivators in the Perush Lamishnah?
ReplyDeletei know! my first thought was that alfie can't possibly be right, the rambam must be right.
ReplyDeletethere is also the idea of "mitoch shelo lishma, ba lishma."
i don't think the rambam would be opposed to other ways to get a person interested, like a teacher should work on how s/he presents the material.
when i have time, i will summarize alfie's main objections to rewards. it was an excellent chapter.