Janna, please go through all the tasks for the test again. Anyone who can’t do them should expect to fail the class. Lynn was the only one who handed in correct homework. I will enter an A in the notebook. Jonathan and Tilmann—if you don’t hand in all the missing protocols by Friday, I will call your parents. Such and similar statements are quite common for teenagers to hear at school. In particular, the great importance of grades for student performance in society often prompts teachers to threaten with the assignment of poor grades and thus discipline the students. Some teachers and parents believe they can motivate with this grade pressure and see it as the only way to get their charges “to learn”. They do not consider that the students, based on the weak foundation of this short-lived extrinsic motivation, only cooperate until the next test, until the reward by teachers or parents, until the achievement of the class goal, only to forget almost everything afterwards. An intrinsic motivation, for example through a cognitive conflict, would last over a longer period of time, the desired long-term learning would have a chance. Different strategies for successful motivation are suggested and reflected upon.