Material Incentives in Schools Debated : Education: Some teachers say a hamburger prize fosters learning. Critics object to intrusion of product marketing.

Years ago, students who performed well in school were recognized with a coveted spot on the honor roll or a shiny gold star on a spelling test. Now, good work or behavior brings material as well as psychic payoffs: a Dodger T-shirt, a free pass to Disneyland or a coupon for a hamburger.

In Southern California and across the nation, these tokens have become as commonplace as lunch recess, especially in elementary schools. Teachers and principals, by and large, welcome the free merchandise, grateful for anything that can help them wage what they often feel is an uphill battle to spark and hold students’ interest in learning.

“It’s not like we’re giving them microwaves and TVs,” said Sheila Benecke, a school board member in the Capistrano Unified School District, where schools reward students with coupons from local businesses selling products ranging from ice cream to surfing gear. “If little rewards like hamburgers encourage positive behavior and academic achievement, then we say: ‘Go for it.’ ”

But the trend toward using material goods as rewards and incentives, for anything from outstanding academic or athletic performance to good behavior, is causing concern and criticism. Some scholars worry that dispensing backpacks, candy and frozen yogurt will destroy one of the greatest gifts of education: learning to love knowledge for its own sake rather than for the prizes it brings.

Others who study education object to what the free merchandise carries into the classroom: corporate marketing messages. They show up in the incentives companies offer and in lesson plans that they design and provide for free, prominently featuring their products.

When schools reward good students with coupons for hamburgers from Carl’s Jr., or when they use a lesson on nutrition from Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, they allow students to be exploited by companies that want to pitch their products and cultivate an increasingly lucrative market, critics say.

“Children are a captive audience, and here we have an outside force which is not accountable to anyone allowed to deliver its messages unhindered,” said Grace Foster, vice president for education for the California Parent-Teacher Assn.

“Should schools be a place where anyone can intrude to get a message to children? Or should schools . . . be sacrosanct, where we educate children without indoctrinating them?”

Some educators contend that material rewards motivate students--especially young children--in ways that praise never could.

“As we mature and become more confident in ourselves, we become more motivated by intrinsic rewards--knowing you’ve done a good job, knowing you’ve contributed to the group. . . . The results are the reward,” said Gordon Wohlers, an assistant superintendent in the Los Angeles Unified School District who spent 18 years as a teacher and principal.

But for young children just beginning to explore the world of numbers and words, “extrinsic rewards” such as key chains and posters--even with product logos--provide tangible proof of success, helping validate a child’s feeling of competence, Wohlers said.

Companies that provide products and lesson plans to schools freely admit that they derive advertising and public relations benefits from doing so. But they say the schools benefit because what they have to offer has genuine instructional or motivational value.

Carl’s Jr., the Anaheim-based hamburger chain with stores in four western states, gives thousands of “incentive certificates”--coupons for free hamburgers, french fries and drinks--to schools each year, to be used as rewards for various kinds of achievement or behavior. They also encourage middle and high schools to hold fund-raisers at their restaurants, donating to the school 20% of what participants spend there.

“Hopefully because of the goodwill the program provides, people might want to come back and give us their business,” said company spokeswoman Patty Parks. “It’s a goodwill program, but at the same time, we are a business and we don’t need to apologize for being in business.”

Carl’s also provides free lemonade, dispensers and cups emblazoned with its logo for PTA meetings and back-to-school nights. And it distributes to teachers workbooks that include lessons on telling time (noting that a Carl’s Jr. restaurant manager starts his day at 5 a.m.) and counting money (featuring an open Carl’s Jr. cash register) as well as a reading comprehension section that tells the history of how Carl Karcher founded the business.

Chili’s Grill & Bar, a national restaurant chain based in Dallas, distributes 7,000 to 10,000 “Golden Pepper” coupons each year in Orange County schools, entitling students to a free child’s meal.

“There’s an incentive for us because it provides promotion and awareness of our restaurant, but it’s a win-win situation because it also works for the schools,” said Paul Odanaka, Chili’s director for Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“When the kids come in (to redeem the coupons) they get public recognition for what they have achieved. Kids used to get enough attention from schools and parents, but everyone’s stretched so thin, no one has enough time. Maybe Golden Pepper awards can replace some of that.”

Carl’s and Chili’s are hardly alone in offering food, other products or instructional materials to schools. Hunt-Wesson Foods Inc., the Fullerton-based firm that makes Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, provides at the request of teachers packets of cards and booklets describing how peanuts and popcorn are made, including recipes that use both products. Disneyland offers free passes or merchandise to students or entire classes.

James A. Fleming, superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, said: “I often wonder whether corporations receive more in benefit than do the children. It’s always something we’re examining.”

Marketing firms that design in-school advertising campaigns for companies make no secret of the fact that they are targeting a youthful market.

Lifetime Learning Systems, a Connecticut marketing firm that concentrates on reaching the school-age population, put it this way in Advertising Age magazine: “They’re ready to spend and we reach them! Kids spend 40% of each day in the classroom, where traditional advertising can’t reach them. Now, you can enter the classroom through custom-made learning materials created with your specific marketing objectives in mind. Communicate with young spenders directly, and through them, their teachers and parents as well.”

Don Lay, president of Lifetime, said he has no qualms about marketing products to children because he always makes sure the materials he develops for clients provide a valuable educational service. He cited the example of a Bic pens account, which produced classroom posters listing essay-writing tips for students.

Some teachers may use study materials such as Bic’s, and some may pass out coupons for hamburgers. But others dig into their pockets to provide things such as candy, stickers or even backpacks to students who behave well, or read more books than those that were assigned.

Herschel Hill, who teaches fourth and fifth grades at Hoover Elementary in Santa Ana, where many children come from low-income families, said material rewards help reinforce a child’s behavior or self-esteem. He gives students brightly colored pencils or folders, which he buys with his own money, or sometimes coupons donated by McDonald’s.

“These kids need constant reinforcement and praise, and there’s only so far you can go with emotional and verbal support,” Hill said. “The family system has changed. Many kids are coming from one-parent families, or families where both parents work. They don’t see the parents much. And they can’t afford these things. They need that something extra.”

Anna Yee has taught in the Los Angeles school district since 1960--the last 29 years at Vine Street Elementary in Hollywood.

The school has been “adopted” by a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, which provides prizes for children who do well, ranging from a certificate with the golden arches prominently displayed for the “Citizen of the Month” in each class, to a year of free hamburgers for the top seller in the school’s annual candy sale.

“The children get very excited about it, and I don’t see how that can hurt,” said Yee, who teaches fifth grade. “It’s an incentive that works both ways--it encourages the kids to do well and it puts a little money in (McDonald’s) pocket. As a teacher, any little incentive I can give my kids helps.”

That argument infuriates Elliot W. Eisner. A professor of education and art at Stanford University, Eisner said those who use material rewards--whether financed by teachers or by corporations with a marketing message--are using a “short-term, ill-advised and expedient” way to get students’ attention.

“Those kinds of rewards are not what education is about,” Eisner said. “It should be about the satisfaction that comes from mastery, deeper understanding.”

Times staff writer Sandy Banks contributed to this story.