Posted on 05/01/2017 5:45:44 AM PDT by Morgana
Q. My third grade son recently came home in tears saying he didn’t want to go to school anymore because he was punished for talking during silent reading. The teacher kept him in from recess. I think this is horrible. It isn’t a teacher’s job to destroy a child’s love for school. Instead of constant punishment for every little infraction, what about using positive reinforcement?
A. He was in tears for having to miss recess? Ah, sweet innocence of youth. Let’s hope he never gets a really tough consequence. Or a boss. Or a job.
I don’t see what the teacher did as either horrible or tear-inducing. My advice would be to have a conversation with your third-grader on the topic of “coping skills.” Because if being kept out of recess has destroyed his love for school, I shudder to think what’s in store when he gets to algebra.
“Positive reinforcement” is a polarizing topic among teachers. Many of my elementary school colleagues tell me it works very well. I’ll take their word for it. But I’ll tell you something that doesn’t work in middle and high school: positive reinforcement.
I’m not saying it’s all bad, of course. Compliments and certain rewards are very good for the spirit. I’m talking specifically about the widespread use of extrinsic rewards as a means of instilling good conduct.
One problem is that the rewards for good behavior can’t keep pace with children’s changing desires. I remember in first grade being highly motivated to get a colorful little handmade award every week. Can you imagine that kind of thing being a serious inducement for a kid who just got 48 “likes” on his latest Instagram post?
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This came thought my facebook feed, thought your homeschool list might find it useful. Good advise.
The parent fails to see —
The teacher IS using positive reinforcement: all students who were silent during silent reading were rewarded with Recess.
Her son ought to watch and learn. But Mom is in the way.
Thread winner!!
Heck, I got turned in by the playground monitors one time because I rolled a snowball along the ground. Apparently, that WAS considered the same as throwing one - and I got 2 swats that day; one from the principal and another one from my father when I got home - and as a car dealer, he was NEVER home in the middle of the afternoon, so I knew I was in BIG trouble (that, and his response to my ‘Hi, Dad!’ being ‘don’t “Hi, Dad” me’) the minute I saw him in the front yard.
That’s where I started to learn that just because I had internally justified some behavior as ‘okay’ didn’t mean that others around me necessarily had to agree with me.
Abolish school. Problem solved.
The "likes" are positive reinforcement. What part of this doesn't the writer understand?
In behavior management, the first step is to determine what stimuli are reinforcing, among those available to the parent to provide and manage; yes they can change over time and probably will, but in the meantime, the probability of desirable behavior is being increased.
home school folks, get your little ones out of the public indoctrination centers, the kiddie kennels.
Sounds like mom is a Chinook class helicopter parent.
Positive reinforcement doesn’t work because it teaches kids to manipulate people to get what they want.
They learn that if they act up, they will be bribed with something they want to *be good* and so they turn into little hellions who are constantly being promised things to behave.
And like anything, the law of diminishing returns kicks in and it takes more and more and bigger and bigger prizes to get them to behave.
In the meantime, guess who’s in control?
Any mention of the father’s reaction?
I see nothing wrong with occasional positive reinforcement as long as it is not used as substitute for punishment when needed. In the Bible it is clear that God both rewards and punishes his children.
I didn’t see the play ground for weeks at a time during my elementary school career.
Mom needs to grow up.
DING~! WINNER
Sounds like someone needs a kick in the ass and it isn’t the 3rd grader.
My sons are 10 and 11 now. They have already been told on numerous occasions that the world doesn’t care what they like and don’t like.
Kind of ironic - they claim that negative reinforcement is racist when properly applied to minorities, but positive reinforcement is bad when applied to privileged Whites...don’t disagree with how the teacher handled it, just pointing out the truth and assuming that the child wasn’t a protected minority.
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