Braden started 6th grade last fall with green in his eyes. Ryan gave him a challenge and Braden is always up for a challenge, especially when there is money involved.
Braden's elementary school holds an awards ceremony at the end of each quarter, recognizing the students' academic achievements. Students with all As and good citizenship are placed in the Lynx club and those with As and Bs with good citizenship make the Bounding Club. Ryan challenged Braden to make the Lynx club all four quarters of 6th grade. A certificate and handshake from the principal would not be enough to lure our boy in. The reward... $100 in cold, hard cash.
With a zeal I haven't seen before, Braden tackled the first three quarters without difficulty. The money began to be real. On what might a 12-year-old spend $100?
Oh, he's constantly talking about things he would buy. He has quite an imagination and access to the Internet which feeds it. When we were kids I don't think we knew what we were missing. Our parents were smart enough to keep us out of the stores. About a month before Christmas, the Sears catalog would arrive with an inch and a half of fun all bundled together into a book. We would pour through it, tabbing down all the pages of everything we wanted. Kids now days only need to click a mouse to find anything they can dream of. And everyday I hear of something new that he just has to have: an iPhone, fish tank, Foosball table, gold coins, shocking lasers, iPhone, bigger fish tank, base jumping suit, throwing knives, horse, Samurai sword, iPhone, and on and on.
What will $100 buy?
Then came forth quarter. At Braden's elementary school, the 6th graders have the opportunity to take a three-day field trip to Catalina Island as part of their oceanography studies. So Braden and about 90 other 6th graders, with Ryan as one of the chaperons, boarded four buses Easter Sunday evening, bound for California.
After a nine hour overnight bus drive, for what would be a five hour car ride, and a two hour ferry ride, a significant number of the kids were perhaps wondering why they didn't stay home. They could be tucked behind their desks doing their math or science work instead of puking into the ocean. Not our boy though. He truly has some sea legs on him, not a quality he inherited from his mom.
Once on land no one seemed to mind being in class studying marine life, likely because dissecting squid and painting your face with squid ink wasn't part of the previous curriculum. Hiking and snorkeling in the 50 degree Pacific Ocean, chaperons included, were also part of the itinerary.
As a bonus several bison were spotted roaming through campus. And while Braden tells me it was aMAZEing (you'll have to ask him what that means), he still says that Hawaii was better. What kind of competition are three days of fun with 90 friends to a week hanging out with your parents? Thanks B!
With oceanography on the mind and the prize nearly in hand the possibilities grew... perhaps $100 would buy a 100 gallon fish tank that could be filled with a small shark, some frogs and fish.
Perhaps, perhaps...
That $100 was so tangible, that when Braden got a B+ in social studies it was as if he had dropped the money out of his pocket and lost it.
Heartbreak... for all of us.
At the end-of-year assembly Braden was recognized as a Bounding Club member for the first time all year. In addition he was presented a trophy, with just a handful of other students, for his reading achievements. It did little to pacify the appetite of a 12-year-old boy with an empty outstretched hand.
Though Braden feels he is leaving 6th grade without his $100 prize, he actually really gained exactly what we had hoped for... a recognition of the importance of working hard and doing your best. And that is exactly what he did...
worth at least $50, don't you think?
