From Copywriting to Kid in School
I put my copywriting skills to good use today. And actually, I’m rather proud of myself, so I had to share.
Some of you may know I’ve had a heck of a time with one kid in school. Part of it is my son’s behavior issues, part the school royally messing up. One “tailored” behavior plan after another had him completely running the show by the end of the year last spring (which the behavior plan was not really catered to him, but rather a standard, screwy plan to get him to sit down and shut up. It failed in a major way.)
So I decided everything needed to be scratched. The only thing being kept of the original plan was to send me home a daily report, which will consist of only one thing - good day, so-so day, or bad day. That’s it. Depending on how he did at school will determine what happens at home. Good day = quarter. So-so day = nothing gained nothing lost. Bad day = after school grounding (no computer, no games, no bike, no friends, etc). Simple, yet with both rewards and punishments.
Now where does the copywriting come in? Ah, that’s how I got him to actually listen to “the plan”. I didn’t tell him, I just let him read. And I started it out like this:
Want to earn FREE STUFF just for going to school?
Oh yeah, that caught his attention. And he READ it - all of it - and let it absorb. He’s now got it in his head that if he does well in school, he’ll be getting money. And of course like any good sales copy, I didn’t just say he’d get money, but how he could USE that money should he have good days every day. Which for us it would be things like getting ice cream ($1, or 4 good days), going to walmart to play games (they have an arcade, his favorite costing $1 per game), or buying toys at the dollar store (again, costing $1). All of those went into the sales letter, along with the mention if he SAVED his money he could get a “Really cool toy”.
See, for him it’s important to have a clear goal with a lot of room to change his mind. Money was the perfect solution because he knows he can DO something with it, and what he WANTS to do can change 100 times during the week - yet the main goal is still there. Earn money = do fun, special things. Unlike the school, which dangled specific “treats” in front of his face which he may or may not care about (which this plan started failing in kindergarten when he would actually say “no thanks” to rewards…..he’ll be in 2nd grade this year! They KNEW this was failing from the start!). What he wants at the beginning of the day might not be what he wants after lunch, thus their reward system was flawed from the beginning. Plus there was no real punishment in place for not working towards the reward, other than not having the reward. Threating to take away bike, games, and computer has always worked at home, yet they took that control away from me 2 years ago. Thankfully it will be put BACK now.
I mean think about it, what if you were told the money you are working for was to go to a set amount of prizes? What if someone said “We’ll give you $500 for your work this month, but you have to spend it on CDs”. Bet we wouldn’t work as hard, now would we? Heck no, we’d want to use that money on what we wanted. Assuming it’s “extra” money to begin with, we’d want to spend it on a variety of things. A dinner out, a few movies, maybe some books……not the WHOLE AMOUNT on ONE THING. Why do they think a kid would see it differently? My kids know what money is, and they know we use it to buy things. Giving them something clear to work for is not a bad thing, but there needs to be room for them to change their minds too. Getting them to think about what they can BUY with that money is good, but telling them they can ONLY have certain items is NOT a good idea.
Anyway, I thought this was rather creative and thought I’d share. Amazing how business ideas can work their way into every day life. 
Gee, as if we don’t have enough to worry about with gas?!?
I think I would! 
