There was no respect for youth Education is "blessed" with conflicting and contradictory trends. Perhaps they should be considered fads, because the trends go through a sequence of implementation, rethinking, rejection, rethinking, and sometimes, re-implementation.
Some of these trends offer personal programs for children who disrupt classes. They range from occasional special assignments for bright children who don't have the patience to sit with those who are less gifted, to programs for children who have acted out, or rebelled against their parents, and even to extended retreats in Israel for older children who have violated the law.
These programs handle these difficult children, but they do not relate to, solve, or fix the basic, underlying problems.
some children who exhibit poor behavior in class are given a personal program instead of punishing them. This may be because they have influential parents, or because of school policy.
This is worse than a nuisance for the teacher. Their personal program sometimes offers the children small prizes or coupons whenever they do behave properly. Those who collect enough coupons may be eligible to receive a larger prize.
Their schoolmates sometimes ask why they have to behave for free, while these children receive rewards for similar positive behavior.
Some parents had no time to spend with their children because of other circumstances, such as their employment. After working hard, these parents now do have money, so they feel that they can make up for lost time with their children by buying them a reward for being good.
Some of these parents look at the world in terms of money. They now feel that they came out ahead, since they may have earned more money than they had to spend to fix up their children.
In many cases, the children who did wrong probably do deserve the retreat, as compensation for the quality time that they should have received from their parents.
The procedure seems to work at first blush. The children do try to be good in order to win their prizes. The teacher does feel that she has accomplished her goal.
However, is that really the case?
Think how you would act in such a situation. You might actually act poorly during class in order to gain special consideration. You would realize that it would not affect you negatively to be bad.
Wouldn't you want to join this private program? Wouldn't you want to gain extra attention? Wouldn't you want to get prizes? "Go ahead, teacher," you would think - "make me be good. Give me attention and give me a prize, and I'll be good."
The child benefits from the system - it's all gain and no pain, a winning deal.
That's right. This program teaches children to be disruptive. They are rewarded for their disruption by getting a personal program and its prizes.
Doesn't anybody realize how foolish it is?
when I was young,
and now that I am old,
there is no respect for age.
I missed it coming and going
- J.B. Priestly
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Keywords: Behavior, Encouragement, Teaching, Trend
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