Is this school "punishment" acceptable?

[VickiVM]

Does anyone else's school use the "Self-Manager" system? Basically, there are 5 attributes that you fulfill daily. Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, Perseverance and I forget the last one. But essentially, all unacceptable behavior will violate any one or more of these qualities. If they go the whole day without violating any of them, then they are a "Self-Manager". The kids get to wear their Self-Manager lanyard with their badge that has their photo all the time as long as they don't get 3 strikes. If they lose their badge (meaning if they violate 3 times or more) they can get their badge back by petitioning like 3 different teachers or administrators.

The school periodically will have different special priveleges for "Self-Managers" like eating their lunch in the classroom with their teacher, or having an ice cream party at the end of a Friday.

Parents have to sign the children's folder daily or weekly and will know when there's issues. It also will reflect in a specific conduct grade (like 3 marks or less in one grading period gets an "excellent" - or something to that effect).

This system actually works and the children take full responsibility for their behavior. Having your badge taken away is devastating for a lot of these kids.

I also think this is very effective because the entire school uses this system and so its consistent with all teachers and administrators - even subs.

 

[disykat]

Shame is not intrinsically horrible. There's a word for people who never feel shame or guilt: sociopaths.

I think this is worth repeating.

On the other side of that, a child that wallows in shame when caught misbehaving also has issues that need to be dealt with. People have to learn to deal with a certain amount of shame or embarassment - it's part of life.

 

[JVL1018]

I also don't think a hitter and a non-hand raiser should be punished in the same way. schooling.

I agree totally with this..like with my daughters classroom green/yellow/orange/red way fo doing things..the hand raising issue would not be anything more than the teacher reminding her to raise her hand, no other discipline necessary, IMO. There would not be anyone losing a green for that day for that.

 

[TinkInPink]

well two of my main teachers do this. what their system is if you are talking you get your name on the board and if you keep talking they circle it. if your name gets circled you have to come in in the morning like 20 min early. its a system that like others have said Works you dont want your name on the board so you listen and behave.

 

[MrsKreamer]

We had the board thing and we had a chance to earn our name off of the board. I think it is OK, b/c it is visual. A child sees their name or someone else's name and it is there. A child may easily ignore or tune out a teacher repeatedly saying stop that over and over.

 

[Mariposa]

DD's teacher employs 'sticks'. You start off with a certain number at the beginning of the week and lose them for bad behavior. My issue with the stick thing is the same as the hitter/talker issue.. You get the same punishment no matter the bad behavior. And honestly, I take issue with some of what DD's teacher considers bad behavior. We're very careful to teach DD not to tattle, but if she's threatened- all bets are off. Well, DD's teacher feels that tattling in any situation without physical violence is 'bad'.. So, DD has actually had to pull a stick when threatened with physical violence by another child, because she 'tattled' (the child in question also pulled a stick). The next time this occurred (the threatening), DD told the other child she'd 'hit her back'.. and when that child told on DD they both had to pull sticks, 1 each, despite the other child admitting to threatening DD first AND tattling, but.. whatever.. I mean, it's just confusing, and I don't know what to tell her to do a lot of the time.

I've taken to telling her that this is what real life is like. That sometimes there are situations where no option is a great one and we just have to look for the one that works best for us.

 

[barkley]

if i recall from college (teacher credentialing classes)-the assertive discipline method FIRST calls for a verbal cue from the teacher ("mary (or if a number of students are doing it- "class"), remember we raise our hand to ask/answer a question"), then if the behaviour is repeated the name goes on the board, with a check mark for each subsequent breach in behaviour (but if for a new infraction, again a verbal cue is first given). any type of violent behaviour (hitting or the like) was not meant to be addressed with this method. i believe the idea was to actualy save the child from having their inappropriate behaviour repeatedly (verbaly) brought to the attention of the entire class (parents complained that the "only time the teacher calls my child by name is to publicly reprimand him/her". it was also touted as a means to teach a child negative behaviour can cumulitivly have a negative impact on their classrom experience (with the younger ones they think that just saying "i'm sorry" erases the entire event and don't consider the time correcting the behaviour over and over and over takes away from everyone's classroom time).

dd's class uses this (it holds grades 3-8) and by and large you see the same names up in the corner of the wipe board every day at pick-up (if i remember it right the theory called for using a small corner of the board-it's not like the kid's names are written in 6 inch letters), and while i've never had to deal with it re. dd-i know that the teacher does keep a tally on those that have their names with 3 checks after for evaluating behavioural trends and conferencing with parents.

i don't envy teachers these days-parents are so quick to site them if they don't keep their student's behaviour in line and hold "offenders" accountable, but coming up with a system that does'nt offend, "humiliate" or "shame" a child is just not possible. i'm all for positive reinforcement with kids, but at some point they have to learn that there are in life no rewards for behaving in the manner appropriate to whatever social, professional or educational situation they are in-it is simply the expectation, so i can see giving kudos for doing something exceptional-but not for doing something they should have been doing all along (like not talking to their friend during class, raising hands/not interupting others, using common courtesies).

 

[Freyja]

In my opinion, this is totally unacceptable and I can´t believe it will result in anything else than the students low-self esteem in the long run. I believe the focus in school should be on good behaviour and that we should rather reward good behaviour than publicly redicule those who for example do not raise their hands in class.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Oh brother!!! It's called "taking names" and they did it when I was in school! Good grief. Didn't see anything wrong with it then and don't now.

 

[aprilgail2]

Oh brother!!! It's called "taking names" and they did it when I was in school! Good grief. Didn't see anything wrong with it then and don't now.

I agree...if people have a problem with something that small they should really consider homeschooling, especially if their kids self worth is that destroyed by simply having their name on the blackboard! All it took with my daughter was ONE time with her name up there and sure she was upset about it up there but tough luck, she did something wrong so that is her problem, she got over it and she certaily isn't scarred for life over it! Was character building for her as far as I am concerned.

 

[nliedel]

It's a ridiculous punishment. It makes the sensative kids shamed and the ones gives the infamous a reason to misbehave. Oh and any kid who hits with a broom handle should be removed from school.

There are effective ways to deal with rule breaking. This is not one of them. It's not the same as a red light warning system. Everyone's name is there and it is not there to shame, but to remind the students where they all stand, all of them.

 

[BuckNaked]

Personally, I don't see a problem with it. If she was that devastated, my guess is that she won't do it again.

As for being shamed, sorry, but I don't see anything at all wrong with kids being made to feel ashamed when they do something wrong.

And for those saying that the teachers should be rewarding good behavior instead of punishing bad, sorry, but teachers don't have the time to pat little Johnny or little Susie on the back every time they do WHAT IS EXPECTED OF THEM. As part of a longer term plan, yes, but as part of the every day interaction in class? When exactly will the teachers have time to teach?

 

[In a hurry]

"Self-esteem" is not based on a name on the board or not. It is based on a child's accomplishments. Kids are smart enough to know when they are being shmoozed.

There isn't anything wrong with acknowledging misbehavior and pointing it out. Kids know the rules, and choose to break them anyway, and there are consequences to that.

Buying into an overreaction doesn't help your child. If a child is that oversensitive, she/he had better toughen up a bit. It doesn't help her/him at all to shield him/her from the realities of the world.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

My teachers did it all through elementary school, and I'm sure my name got up there at least once, but I honestly can't remember, so I must not have been too emotionally scarred!

 

[Toby'sFriend]

well - my honest opinion.
I'm sorry that your daughter feels horribly upset over her punishment. BUT, punishments aren't supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

IMHO, this is one of the things that has gone horribly wrong with children and the entire world we surround them in today. It is why we have school systems that are being run by the inmates. It is why "all the children are above average" and it is why most teachers leave the profession in droves within 5 years of starting the job.

No child can ever be told that they were wrong or bad. No child can ever be told that they got an F on their Spelling Test because the Child made the bad choice to watch Survivor Thurs night instead of study (it must be the Teachers fault), no child can ever be disciplined or be told that they are anything other than just the most absolutely perfect being ever to walk the face of the Earth since Jesus Christ himself because ---

well you didn't see her last night. She was CRYING.

I have 3 kids and let me tell you. They CRY. Kids since the beginning of time have cried when they are upset and when they break the rules it is the JOB of their parents and teachers to make them upset.

 

[Maleficent13]

I suppose that those of you who feel this would damage a child's self esteem probably do not allow students to work at the board in front of the class either because that might expose to the other students in the class that they have not mastered a skill. I guess this goes along with all of that outcome based education. If a student gives an answer to what is 2 + 2 and they say 3 we should just applaud them for at least understanding that addition means more and they did say 3 which is more than 2....they are almost there. It might damage their self-esteem if they were told they were wrong and that 2 + 2 = 4.

Excellent post. There were several others worth quoting too, but I won't bore you. Suffice to say, punishment is supposed to make you feel crappy...that's why it's not called a reward.

How about a kid having healthy self-esteem because they actually know something, as opposed to having false self-esteem because everyone praises them to kingdom come?

 

[yeartolate]

I am a mom and find nothing wrong with the punishment.

Another poster mentioned the "sticks" system and our younger grades used that system as well. It worked very well. It clearly indicates which child has been naughty or nice.

If a child is distraught over her name being on the board for a minor infraction that is not the "fault" of the teacher. If a child is so sensitive not to be able to handle a simple punishment or to understand the punishment in context, then perhaps some outside help is needed. Actually, in lower grades "not raising your hand" is a big deal. Granted next to hitting another kid with a stick is a tad worse.

The poster who stated that the teacher should be asked to leave her name off the board (when that is the accepted punishment ) will be setting that child up for harrassment by her classmates and setting the tone for a life of "the rules don't apply to me".

 

[sunlver]

I have not read all the replies yet. My first gut reaction was , yes this is not right. But at my daughters school they do things a big different(She is in 1st grade). Each child has a clothes pin with their name on it. All the clothes pins are on the wall. On the wall there is a big green sign(where all kids start out), the next circle is yellow, and the last circle is red.If the child gets a warning about something, they are moved to yellow, if they are on yellow they get chances to move back to green. If the child has broken several rules and has not improved behavior they are moved to red. So really, I see this type the same as the name on the board. I mean any point in the day any child could see who is on what color. Do I agree with it? Well to me , if it works keep it.

 

[va32h]

In my opinion, this is totally unacceptable and I can´t believe it will result in anything else than the students low-self esteem in the long run. I believe the focus in school should be on good behaviour and that we should rather reward good behaviour than publicly redicule those who for example do not raise their hands in class.

American students are not lacking in self-esteem. Often, their self-esteem far exceeds their capabilities, as they have been coddled and rewarded since birth for every "accomplishement" great and small.

Writing names on the board is a practice as old as public school itself, it were truly so destructive, our society would have imploded 80 or 90 years ago.

And I myself am totally opposed to reward-based discipline. We have a generation of children who ask "what's in it for me" before they so much as get out of bed in the morning.

I highly recommend the book "Punished by Rewards" by Alfie Kohn, which gives solid evidence that reward based discipline is a failure in school, at home, and in the workplace. When people are bribed to do a task, they devalue that task ("This must be a real pain to do, if they have to give me a prize for doing it"). When children are bribed to behave, they do not learn the intrinsic value of being a good person. They do not learn that discpline, self-control, moral behavior and courtesy are their own rewards.

Writing a child's name on the board is about the most benign and non-confrontational punishment I can think of. If a teacher can't even do that, then we should just give up altogether and let the little darlings run wild.

 

[Bob Slydell]

I also don't have an issue with it. DS' Pre-K class uses something similar to the "sticks" method I've seen mentioned. They have an apple tree in their classroom with three apples on it and they have to pull an apple for any bad behavior. Pull all three apples on a given day and the teacher sends home a note to the child's parents. It's right by the classroom door so all parents see it when they first walk in at night. They do have the opportunity to "earn" back an apple, though, with a "positive action". Plus, if they go the whole week without pulling an apple, they get a certificate praising their good behavior.

DS has been very honest with us about why he's had to pull apples -- and we discuss with him each time he gets an apple what he needs to work on so that the next time he doesn't get an apple. Much of the time, DS is pulling apples for talking in class -- not something that bothers me too much (compared to some of the things a few of his classmates often do), but we've had a lot of discussions about how to act properly in class.