Food used as reward in classroom?

[Anonymous]

To follow up on a reference in the thread on food in classrooms: is it common in public schools for teachers to reward students with food/ small candy?? I only moved to the US a few years ago, so, from an outsider's perspective, this seems bizarre, a bit like dog-training. I'd love some feedback on whether this is pretty common here. We're in FFX county, though I suspect all this might depend on individual schools' policies. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think that's a really bad idea. It's how you make children FAT.

[Anonymous]

You should get other parents on board with you, and ask the teacher to avoid doing that.

[Anonymous]

This seems to vary from teacher to teacher in my experience. My DD's first grade teacher did this, but her second grade teacher did not. (We are in FCPS.)

[Anonymous]

Cash is better.

[Anonymous]

I've never heard of that. My son's school is fairly restrictive about food (no birthday treats) and I am grateful.

[Anonymous]

It is not uncommon - but I agree with you that it is not a healthy practice.

I would encourage you to ask the teacher about this practice and if you have issues with how it is implemented, talk with the teacher / principal / parent's association

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thanks for the replies. I'm surprised that, while not common, this practice isn't that rare either. Unfortunately this might be another reason for us going the private route, even though we moved to our FFX county neighborhood specifically for the public schools (I will, of course, check what's happening locally, though this could always change with a new teacher/ principal).

I just don't get why a teacher would think that it's ok to feed kids candy as part of their lessons. I've made a conscious effort to raise my kids to regard natural, cooked-from-scratch food as the norm and to love learning for its own sake. I really don't need someone to 'reward' them with sugary crap for something that they should be doing anyway in the first place.

Do educators not make a link between this practice, alongside the reduced time for recess, and rising rates of childhood obesity and challenging classroom behavior? By the way, the percentage of kids diagnosed with ADHD is much higher in the US than in other Western countries - I wonder why. (There are obviously many factors that feed into this, but current classroom practice certainly don't seem to help.)

Rant over - this is obviously a subject dear to my heart.

[Anonymous]

It's common in both public and private schools (my kids started in public and later switched to private and I have taught in an area private). However, it is on the wane and many teachers are switching over to using other kinds of rewards -- e.g., child gets to feed the class pets, child gets to have a special stuffed animal sit on his/her desk for the day, etc. It doesn't take a lot to change things on this issue since teachers are generally aware of the concern and are simply looking for new ideas. Have you tried talking to your child's teacher as well as other parents at your child's school?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks again for all the responses. I guess this is a battle I will need to take up if and when it becomes necessary, be it in public or private school.