Why? Part 2:I-Pods

At our school you get rewarded for behaving the way you are supposed to behave. In Merenia's team at the end of the week they get 'privilege'. If you have been a super little person for the whole week long you get to go play on the playground in school time. That's cool. At the end of term they have a movie and pop corn with the rest of the team. Even cooler!

There is also a 'school stars' scheme where amongst 500 kids a number (I don't know how many) earn 'tickets' each week which are then drawn from and two kids each week who have behaved as is expected of them shown 'outstanding playground behaviour and citizenship' are given a prize. Never mind the other 498 odd kids most of whom will have also behaved as they were expected- there's only two prizes to receive, so tough luck really. My kids and the other kids I know have a bunch of notions about these kids which may or may not be true. Whether it is true or not doesn't matter because it is what they believe and it's their beliefs that motivate their behaviour. These beliefs include but are not limited to the following:

• If you are a girl you have a better chance. (The numbers support this.)
  
• The younger you are the better the chance. ( I think the numbers support this too as I didn't recognise the bulk of the names and I know most of the kids year 3 up)
  
• Senior boys are not really in the running.
  
• Members of a certain teachers classroom are automatically disqualified.
• It's not what you do but who you know- and how much they like you.
  

If you happen to be the one kid who's name is magically plucked from 500 odd each term as being the School 'Star' of the term then you get an i-pod. I have issues with that for a number of reasons;

• $400 a year of the schools valuable and (dwindling) funding goes to benefit 4 children and not for specific learning needs.
• There was no consultation with anyone (teachers or parents when this i-pod prize was arrived at).
• There have been 6 year olds win this prize. I don't want my 9 and 11 year olds to have an i-pod let alone a six year old (if I had one).
• What about the other kids who, if we are rewarding people for doing what they are meant to do, are also doing what they are meant to do- where is their recognition?

A little bit about the choice of i-pods...

• It's not actually good for little ears to use head/earphones.
• It's a little anti-social to be sitting around plugged into an i-pod (not what I want for my kids).
• It is illegal to download free music on the net. It is legal to copy a CD you own to your computer/i-pod for personal use- (my daughter only owns one CD). So unless the child in question has a bit of a CD collection, cash for i-tunes or Disney has licensed Hannah Montana with a creative commons licence (yeah right!) then actually the i-pod isn't really all that much use.
• What message is it sending to our kids about what we think is valuable? Call me old fashioned but what about book vouchers?

School Stars is one of a number of intiatives that have been brought about this year. All have had various levels of commitment from staff, pupils and parents, one I believe didn't even get off the ground. All have taken time and effort and in some cases cash away from teaching our children. Human and physical resources already spread thin are spread thinner. In this case to reward children for doing what they should do as a matter of course. I mean really are we willing to expect anything less from our kids than good behaviour and good citizenship at school and at home? I think not, and I sure as heck aren't about to start buying my kids the latest cool toy when they do as they are told each day. And I don't respect a school management team that thinks this is a good idea.