Our society offers endless carrots and almost no stick for amoral adults (see sport and finance). It makes sense to prepare children for the world that they will encounter rather than an idealised one of Victorian cant where virtue is rewarded and sin punished! Long live choccy treats and go-karting

Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales

Just to ask the obvious question, you the teacher were handing out chocolate, etc., to children in your class without their parents' permission?

It's good that you now see this is wrong, but how many other teachers are still doing the same thing?

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA

The problem is that learning is no longer it's own reward: university is now just a means to an end: earning potential. The advent of fees & continued drain of post graduate funding shows this.

Louise, Liverpool,

Children in foster care receive £20 to go to the dentist and £15 when they attend a LAC review.

What knid of training is this.? by the Corporate Parent who knows all.!

Catherine Mills, London, UK

Chocolate in class? Ice-cream? Trips to the sweet shop? I can't believe it! That type of "reward" in a school is almost as undesirable as the "family fag".
To me it sounds more like "buying" good behaviour rather than rewarding it.

Rewards are OK, but the proper, educational type please.

Sitz Dikstr, Sneek, Netherlands

Spare the rod, spoil the child.

Not very politically correct, but it worked for centuries and would still work today, unlike the ludicrous system of bribing and begging children to behave.

They aren't spontaneously mentally or morally equipped to make the decisions. They need guidance.

j griffiths, manchester, england

As a teacher in a London school I can add my opposition to the argument in this article. Yes rewards can be abused just as sanctions too can be used inappropriatelty. However, to write off rewards seems to be a deliberately contoversial suggestion to draw attention to your glib panacea of a book.

Ben Keely, London,

Thank goodness I don't teach in London anymore!

A Fouche, Thaba, SA

I told my children a good education is like money in the bank so their life will be easier when they are older. Why should a child be rewarded with a £130 X-BOX just because they are doing what they should be doing anyway?

Dave Farmer, Broxbourne, England

I tell my children that the reward for good behaviour and work at school will be the qualifications they gain in later yeras allowing them to pick and choose (i hope) the career they want.

We need to move away from rewarding what should be considered the norm.

Nick Sutcliffe, Thrapston,

children are individuals, what works for one child does not neccesarily work for another. Carrots work far better than sticks for my child but I would never suggest this would therefor be true of every child.

Gillian, Glasgow,

Rewards for complying with social norms contribute to this sense of entitlement that the youth of today have.
"What are you going to give you if I behave" should be answered with "what's going to happen to you if you don't"
If you reward for nothing then nothing is all you'll ever receive

Andy, Eugene, USA

You reward competitions or jobs, not good behaviour per se. It's fine to give a prize for the first one to complete the maths worksheet with 100% correct, or to have paid milk monitors - the coveted post given to reliable pupils. What is not OK is rewards for sitting quiet in class.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

How is it that Casinos do so much business? Another question: why is it that some kids like to be paddled or sent to the office? I think the central problem is lack of experimental control over the classroom by the instructor. If there are 30 people in the room, 30 people are reinforcing behavior.

David, Nashville, USA

Carrot is occasionally effective, stick is very effective...

...but the most effective of all?

Example.

Lizzie, London,

It is also important to treat every pupil the same in front of other pupils. Even if Tommy is misbehaving because he has been abused by his dad, other children need to see that he is punished for biting Timmy. If children realise that special treatment is available, they will not respect the rules.

Amy Cunningham, London, England

Punishment - or, more usually, the mere threat of it - is far more effective. It's also more appropriate, as we are simply asking children to behave in a normal acceptable way, and do their work to an acceptable standard. They should not be rewarded unless they do something outstanding.

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

At long last someone has articulated some sensible advice on classroom/child management.

THANK YOU!!

Pat.R, Cwll,

You don't need to be Einstein to realize that the stick is more effective than the carrot. The PC brigade's removal of the stick from the classroom has produced the generation of jobs that we see every weekend in Britain's city centres. It's time to end this failed experiment.

M smith, Bangkok, Thailand