Do incentives encourage good behavior or delay gratification?!?

As some may or may not know, I am a Professional School Counselor for a charter school and I work with K-1 students.  The argument within the school, with administration, is that we should not have to place incentives in place for students to behave or “do what they are supposed to do.”  While I am all for this tactic, with students who already know how to behave, I don’t think this tactic works too well when you have students who come from lower-income families, have four to six older or younger siblings at home, and have no sense of respect for authority.  Hell, they barely listen to their parents, if they aren’t getting beat upside the head first.  I had to think back to my childhood days.  Was it my behavior that allowed me to go to after school skating EACH and EVERY Wednesday after early release?  Was it my behavior in school that allowed me to spend countless days and nights at my cousin’s house as we did our chores and waited for TGIF to come on ABC?  I would have to say that most, if not all, adults had experiences in their childhood where their behaviors affected how they would be rewarded at home.  I can recall a time I had gotten in trouble (can’t recall if it was at school, mostly likely at home), but I was allowed to still go skating after school.  The only catch….I couldn’t skate that day.  Do you know how it felt to be an experienced skater at eight years old and not be able to skate with the other kids and literally watch everyone roll by me for five hours!?!  You can BEST believe I didn’t get in trouble anymore where my after school rights were taken from me.  So why is it such a problem now that we all of a sudden expect for kids five through seven to automatically know what to do?  They also understand that if they don’t follow directions or listen there isn’t a consequence for them anyway!  These kids are so needy why not feed into that need!?  Also, why not feed into what we the teachers and staff want and that is to go home happy because at least 80% of our students where successful behaviorally, academically, and socially?  The saying is “Insanity:  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  Well there are only so many times I can tell a child to sit down, be quiet, and listen without driving myself to the point of no return myself.  You be the judge…