I hate the happy sticks. “What are happy sticks?”, you ask. They are the system my youngest son’s teacher has to control her students’ behavior. Each student receives three happy sticks at the beginning of the day. A student who behaves all day keeps all three sticks and earns a “green” score at the end of the day. Each time a student misbehaves, a stick is taken away. Two sticks at the end of the day means “yellow”, one stick means “red.” And no sticks? Well, that means a visit to the Principal’s office.
My son isn’t doing too well with the happy sticks. His problems are: “talking too much” (wonder where he gets that from??), “not staying on task”, and “not following directions.” Here’s the rub: my kid is a great student on the A/B Honor Roll. Still, as parents trying to reinforce positive behavior at school, we’ve introduced negative sanctions at home. We’ve taken away video games and TV when my son comes home with too many yellows or reds. What’s next? Now he’s driving ME crazy too!
Of course, I want my son to behave, but I also want his teacher to take those happy sticks and stick ’em where the sun don’t shine! If I were a student in her class, I’d be coming home with yellows and reds too! Of course, it could be worse. My son could be acting like little Johnny:
Little Johnny returns from school and says he got an F in math.
“Why?” asks his father.
“Because the teacher asked ‘How much is 2×3?’ And, I said ‘6.’”
“But that’s right!”, responds his father with indignation.
Johnny continued: “Then she asked me ‘How much is 3×2?'”
“What’s the #@#* difference?” asks his father.
“That’s what I said!”, replies Johnny.
Happy Monday,
Mary
Cartoon credit: Artist unknown
