WHEN I hear the sports news, for me it’s a bit like a fly buzzing or the sound of traffic.

Noise, but not something I'm paying attention to.

The sport section of the weekend paper goes straight into the recycling bin.

Last week, though, a football story caught my attention. A humiliating defeat for Sunderland – no goals to Southampton’s eight (two of which they scored on the Saints’ behalf!) drew a promise by players to refund fans the ticket cost.

Sure, tickets aren't cheap and for this pathetic display, the fans had a 14-hour journey.

But wouldn't those who travelled the length of the country to see their team play have an emotional bond that would survive the highs and lows of a season?

A fan blog rant is perhaps warranted but doesn’t being reimbursed because the team had a spectacularly bad day turn the whole thing into a transaction with conditions? At what point does a match stop offering value for money? Should there be an equation to weigh the calculation of miles travelled plus cost of ticket against the score? A few days later came the news that GPs would be paid to diagnose dementia.

Huh? Diagnosing people who are sick is what doctors do – it's the only way to help people either to manage their symptoms or to get better.

Making a diagnosis isn’t some extraordinary or onerous task beyond the job remit, for which they are paid a salary.

I remember feeling sad that some of my daughters’ friends were being paid for their A levels.

The promise of cash is so different from a treat for a job well done.

Did those parents view these payments as an investment in their child’s future, I wondered?

An often-cited study from the early 1970s about motivation showed that children who were told they would be given a reward for doing something they enjoyed – drawing – began to draw less. Dangling an unnecessary carrot in front of kids who otherwise were happy to draw lessened the pleasure they derived from it.

When did we forget that things like pleasure, satisfaction, and a sense of duty sometimes are worth more than money?

Those who attend the screening of Learning for Real at the Salisbury Arts Centre on Tuesday, November 4 can expect to be reminded.

These three short films show children in three different settings where the lines of play and work are mixed and offer pleasure and satisfaction for their own sake.

They might well show us adults a thing or two about how to reward what's valuable and important.