Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for October 17, 2019

Dad should know his money is safe even if he had accepted the deal.

Calvin forgot to add a price for every F. Perhaps a penny’s worth?

But bribery at least helps part of the family.

nice try Calvin

Sounds like the escalating rates the Tooth Fairy has been getting.

Either way, you’d still be broke, Calvin.

We had a system kind of like that when I was a kid. For every A you got an attaboy and your choice of desert sometime in the next week. For every B you got an attaboy and (for me) a small talk about what it would take to get it up to an A. For every C you got to wash dishes. For a week. For a D or an F.

I dunno: Nobody ever dared see what would happen.

Nose to the grindstone Calvin. Studying makes you smare and of course…builds character.

You dummy, you should’ve started out with nickels and dimes.

So… he’s planning to get 4 Ds? Either that, or his math skills are part of the joke here

My brother tried that system with his lazy son. It worked as an incentive for about 3 weeks at the start of every term, but he never actually had to shell out.

wow!!! dream on kid!!!

His standards were way to high. Should have held out for $.50 for a D-

But Dad, you bribing me builds character for me and you.

I don’t think even back when this was published that elementary school kids were getting actual letter grades …. they didn’t where I was, anyway.

Dammit, my hope just was to score an easy $4!

Hold that thought, Calvin. You have a future in marketing and advertising.

There was no system like that in my house. You just had to look at my parents faces. A got a “good job,” B got smiles and a hair ruffle (sometimes), C got a shrug, D got a frown and a glare, and F got “the look” with a talking-to soon after.

Bribe is such an ugly word, let’s call it an ‘incentive’ instead.

Easy money is very hard to come by, Calvin!

Geez. In my house, A’s and B’s were expected. C’s you got a lecture and sometimes a bit more, D’s you got walloped.

My son never applied himself, allowing himself to fail each year, knowing he could go to summer school, do minimal work and pass the grade THAT way. I told him if he passed the regular term, I would take him (and his sister) to the Caribbean or Disney or other great trip. Didn’t matter. I always ended up going with just my daughter. My son stayed with his grandparents who gave him a better vacation than he would have had in the Caribbean, all while chauffeuring him daily to summer school. He didn’t miss our trip at all. I tried this for several years….just didn’t seem to be an incentive. I wish my parents hadn’t mollycoddled him to this degree – it just never felt like punishment to him!

I seem to remember 5 subjects in elementary school; arithmetic, social studies, language, science and health. I don’t know about first grade where Calvin is, I can’t remember that far back.

When I was at Junior School, we had a spelling test each Friday. My dad listened to my results and offered me a bar of chocolate whenever I got 18/20. I started getting either 18 or 19 correct spellings each week so Dad told me I would only get the chocolate bar when I got 19/20. Naturally, I studied harder to continue getting a chocolate bar each week.

For whatever reason, I was unaware of report cards until 6th grade; I was just told to take them home. Then a classmate asked what grades I got and I answered in all my wisdom, “Huh?”

Not sure what my major malfunction was in school. We receieved either an S (Satisfactory) or U (Unsatisfactory) in grades 1, 2, & 3. A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, & F’s started in 4th Grade. No Preschool or Kindergarten. I did OK till late in the 5th grade I started a gradual decline. I failed 6th grade (VERY humilating) and it was then discovered I had poor eyesight. Got my first pair of glasses in my second year of sixth grade. But my study habits by then had taken a severe hit. If I got lucky enough to get a “C” I felt like it was the equivalent of an A+. I dropped out of highschool my senior year, joined the Army, got my GED but regretfully never returned to school. My Father worked 2 and sometimes 3 jobs. My Mother dropped out of school before she reached the 8th grade. I don’t blame my parents. Maybe the school for not figuring out what my problem was sooner? I am talking small schools. 2 & 3rd grade was taught at the same time, by the same teacher, in the same classroom. There was no Junior High School. Grades 1-8 were taught in the same building. I would have been the 58th Senior in highschool had I finished. And that was 2 towns combined. Did I fail or was it the system?

My teachers wouldn’t have let this happen. They always said, “There will be no consequences, positive or negative, due to your grades.”

I was always a straight-B student. I was always being told “you can do better”. I always wondered, if they already knew I could do it, what did I have left to prove?

My dad used to bribe us in elementary school: 0.9, 0.8 or 0.7 would mean we received 9, 8 or 7 cents, but for each perfect 10/10 he gave us 10 bucks! It was a nice system that made us work really hard for those 10/10.

At least he’s not greedy.

This made me LOL!

Heck, that’s not only child labor, but it’s not even minimum wage!! 8^)

Heck, that’s not only child labor, but it’s not even minimum wage!! 8^)

I was what was later called “Gifted Under Achiever”. Had all of my books read in a few weeks and rarely had to crack them during the year. I would ace most of the tests, but I was bored stiff with homework. I knew the stuff, but got stiffed.

For some reason my oldest sister did not do well in high school physics (she has always been one to look up to, though). I asked my father if he would give me a prize if i got an A in physics when the time came. He just looked at me strangely, and said “That’s the grade we expect out of you.”

If parents give out money for A’s and B’s they should charge an equal amount for D’s and F’s. If the kid gets $5 for an A they have to pay the parents $5 for an F.

In the animated series “Daria” when her slacking sister finally got an “A” Dad gave her $20. Daria who makes “A’s” all of the time demanded compensation too.

Perhaps if every A was $10 and every B was $5 and every C was -$5 and every D was -$10.

Calvin, please pay your Dad $40.

For my kids it was $5 for an A only. If it was straight As, I would double his money. He got all As one time so he “could prove to me that could do it.”

Yes Calvin – apply yourself now while you have the chance.

D-D-D-Darn it!

That makes your grade to above D and a little below C. I think you have bargained for more than you can chew.