behavior color cards? does anyone find this offensive?

[Anonymous]

My son in in K in FCPS. His teacher uses the stoplight system, and she even admits that she at times needs to go to yellow.

In her classroom, the children only get a yellow (or eventually red) after they had been warned and only if they intentionally break the rules. They do not take away recess. I agree that taking away recess is counterproductive.

In addition, my child is sent home with a folder every day that I need to sign. In the folder it is noted whether my child's behavior was green, yellow, or red for the day. If you do go to red, then the parents also receive a phone call.

It seems to be effective to me. I do agree though that teachers do need to be on lookout for other problems and to separate learning disabilities from misbehavior.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's that bad. A bit like the yellow card/red card in FIFA. (World Cup Soccer)

[Anonymous]

I can see where the public aspect of it would be embarassing to some kids (I got in trouble once as a kid and it still mortifies me to this day). But, I can't imagine a situation where a child is moved to yellow or red that it isn't already apparent to the class. I mean, they don't move down the scale based on a poor grade, but instead on poor or disruptive behavior. Therefore, maybe this is a way to reinforce that your behavior both reflects on you and impacts those around you.

I also agree that we've come a long ways from the days when parents weren't made aware, and therefore kids with true behavioral issues didn't have the opportunity to have interventions/assistance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My first reaction to your post was "lighten up" but then I remembered my own experience. When I was in third grade, in moco, our teacher would write our name up on the board if we misbehaved. This was the warning. Then if you misbehaved again, you got a checkmark and missed the first 1/2 of recess. If you misbehaved a second time, you missed all of recess. Wanna know how many times I went to recess in third grad? Once. For half of recess. Fast forward a few years...turns out I had ADHD, which I still struggle with today. Clearly this method did absolutely nothing to model my behavior, as I consistently got in trouble throughout the year. And my infractions were things like chatting, which I just couldn't help. My parents were never called. That part is the saddest. I probably thought it was a blessing at the time, because I would have thought I would be in trouble with my parents, but at least if the teacher/school had told my parents I could have gotten the help I desperately needed and didn't get until I was in high school. Sorry for the memory lane rant, but no, I don't think it's a good idea. Maybe including the parents makes it better, but what do I know.

Interesting story. I just went to a lecture on ADHD by a very prominent long time researcher in the field of ADD/learning disability, and she explicitly cited this red/yellow/green light behavior management system as exactly the wrong kind of discipline for young children, particularly those w/ ADHD. Furthermore, it really often serves to meet the needs of the teacher, not the kids or classroom. For all children, (not just ADD), it seems that research shows that positive reinforcement produces much stronger and longer lasting results than the kinds of negative reinforcement described.

Saddest she said, was that kids with ADD are simply behind in the brain development curve, and thru chastisement alone are really not able to change their behavior. The brain wiring simply hasn't developed yet to control impulsive or hyperactive behavior. Instead the Dr. said that it would be better to modify the classroom or permitted behavior so it was less disturbing to others. For example, instead of yellow-carding a child who repeatedly interrupts and makes comments, better to provide the child with X number of poker chips that she can spend to make comments. When the chips are gone, the comments stop. Or give fidgety kids something they CAN fidget with instead of yellow carding them for table tapping with their pencil. Give a constant whistler something to chew on in his/her mouth, etc.

[Anonymous]

I also agree that we've come a long ways from the days when parents weren't made aware, and therefore kids with true behavioral issues didn't have the opportunity to have interventions/assistance.

This is nice in theory, but the reality is many kids are not diagnosed with things like ADHD, anxiety, etc. until they are 7 or older. Before that it is difficult to tell developmentally normal behaviors from other issues.

And there are plenty of teachers giving yellow and red cards for NORMAL 5/6/7 year old behaviors. These kids are stuck at school, at a desk for a large part of the day. Sometimes they fidget and squirm and talk out of turn or to their friends. Shaming kids for NORMAL behaviors seems very counterproductive to me. And since not all teachers use them, obviously they are not necessary for classroom management.

Saddest she said, was that kids with ADD are simply behind in the brain development curve, and thru chastisement alone are really not able to change their behavior. The brain wiring simply hasn't developed yet to control impulsive or hyperactive behavior.

Exactly. When you have a kid who lacks impulse control, whether it's from ADHD or regulatory delay or just being a kid, you can give them 100 red cards and it doesn't make them any more likely to "behave". All it does is reinforce negative behaviors, creates shame, and starts to label kids as early as K and 1 as "troublemakers".

[Anonymous]

For example, instead of yellow-carding a child who repeatedly interrupts and makes comments, better to provide the child with X number of poker chips that she can spend to make comments. When the chips are gone, the comments stop. Or give fidgety kids something they CAN fidget with instead of yellow carding them for table tapping with their pencil. Give a constant whistler something to chew on in his/her mouth, etc.

I like the poker chip idea, but am confused because it implies the child can learn impulse control this way but the Dr. said ADD/ADHD students don't learn anything with a carding method. Not clear on that. The problem with giving some students something to chew is that most classes do not allow chewibles, edible or not. I think teachers do a lot of accommodating for the range of students in their class but at this young age cannot have multiple systems.

The yellow card / red card system worked great with my child and his classmates. It seemed to be a real deterrent. Also one child who got a lot of cards was tested, and maybe without a carding system that might not have happened as quickly, it's a marker for the teacher, too.

[Anonymous]

One kid realized that if he was red carded by 9:30, there was no further reason to even try and behave...

that worked out well - not. He did much better the following year with a less rigid system

[Anonymous]

My son would've been like the PP. In fact, he probably would've thought it was cool to get red cards. Many kids, especially boys, don't care about pleasing the teacher. My son wouldn't have cared less if he got a red card.

[Anonymous]

When I taught each kid in my class had a mailbox... more like a slot to keep papers that would be going home. Each mailbox was numbered so I could use it from year to year. I had a stop light and clothes pins that were numbered. They were assigned the same number as their mailbox and they knew their number... so if they had to move their clip it was a little less obvious... but eventually everyone knew who everyone else was. But that way random people wouldn't be able to walk into the room and know which kid was behaving and which wasn't. It was school wide. I didn't think it was offensive, but also didn't think that it worked with each kid.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher let me play devils advocate. Maybe you shouldn't be so worried about your child being "embarrassed" and you should worry more about why your child lost recess! Why are you blaming the teacher for the child's behavior?(assuming the teacher is doing her/his job and keeping the child engaged/challenged etc..) Let me also say that when I was a 5th grade teacher I never took recess away from students because that was MY time to plan, eat lunch, etc.. I just took the student to the phone and they called their parents in front of me- problem was solved 99% of the the time.

[Anonymous]

i'm the op. my child never loses recess. she isn't a behavior problem at all. but my child instead is constantly worried about her color status. what will happen if she isn't on green? she will be mortified. she is mortified on behalf of the children who lose their green status. she is very self-conscious. this isn't helping her focus on her schoolwork.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i'm the op. my child never loses recess. she isn't a behavior problem at all. but my child instead is constantly worried about her color status. what will happen if she isn't on green? she will be mortified. she is mortified on behalf of the children who lose their green status. she is very self-conscious. this isn't helping her focus on her schoolwork.

She sounds very sensitive. If it isn't this, it would be something else. There's no way a system can work for every single child, every single time. The schools just have to do their best to accommodate everyone, of course.

[Anonymous]

I was the teacher who used this system in my classroom. FWIW I usually had 4 to 8 children in the classroom at one time, so I certainly didn't use it because I had large classes! Also, I certainly would not turn a child's care for "fidgiting" or "asking too many questions" or interrupting or whatever. And for a very sensitive child, it would be a rare, rare day when the child's care would even need to be turned -- for those types of children, often a riased eyebrow woudl be enough to redirect behavior, or a quiet whisper "You need to be doing... now instead of ..." or better yet, "What do you need to be doing now?" For a child who had serous attention problems, we would need to work out strategies to keep him or her focused and on task; a simple card system would not have much effect on ability to direct attention to classwork.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP.... I thought about this some more. I'd say that after the first few weeks of school, in a good classroom with a sensitive teacher, very few card flipping should be going on. Any child who perpetually gets on "red" -- more than once or twice a week in the first few weeks -- should be moved to a more individual behavior management system and have other interventions put into place. If children frequently are flipping cards with the above system after the first few weeks it's a sign that the system isn't working: either the teacher's expectations for behavior are unrealistic, or the classroom instruction is inappropriate, or the teacher is being inconsistent in rule enforcement, or the consequences for getting "red" aren't motivating for the students.

[Anonymous]

I've had experience with this in both private K and public FCPS. I've heard many parents complain about embarrasing the kids. Guess what - it works great with my kids. One DC is a rule tester. Couple of reds and calls home told him the rules will be enforced and he needs to follow them. DC got with the program and stayed on track. Other DC is a sensitive type, had a bad day once and got on yellow - which got him upset. Guess what, no more acting up.

If it works for the teacher and the child, I'm all for it.