my toddler's teacher put stickers on her arm

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Childcare Chatboard

my toddler's teacher put stickers on her arm

by richard

Mar 15, 2012

Advice please!

My toddler is nearly 3 years old. Her teacher put a sticker on her forearm as praise and recognition. This is after I complained about the teacher's use of ink stamps on her forearm with the same explanation.

My child complaints about washing her arm and get the sticker wet. The sticker tugs also tugs her skin when I pull it off gently for her bath.

As a parent, I want to support my child's teacher. I don't want to be an angry parent. But I just cannot understand why this body decoration is desirable or necessary at such a young age. Am I missing something? Can someone please enlighten me and help me see it from the teacher's perspective.

Mahalo.

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maureen br> > There is a lot of public discussions about students lacking > intrinsic motivation in their education. Did it all start from > excessive use of stickers in child care? Who knows... > > What is much more certain to me is that the child is much more > likely to develop intrinsic motivation if they experience a > CONSISTE...See Morebr> > There is a lot of public discussions about students lacking > intrinsic motivation in their education. Did it all start from > excessive use of stickers in child care? Who knows... > > What is much more certain to me is that the child is much more > likely to develop intrinsic motivation if they experience a > CONSISTENT reward system at home and in the classroom. I will not > use stickers at home, so stickers are for me, a distraction for > my child in her long term development of intrinsic motivation. > > What if the child only responds to stickers? My solution is that > the teacher who introduced the sticker in the classroom should > not leave it for the parent to remove after class. That is just > good house keeping. > > Hope this helps the next person who has to deal with this > subject.

Richard: I was never one to use rewards for behavior at home(and definitely not as a teacher) and that is why I found Montessori preschool for my children so compatible to our home environment. (the development of intrinsic motivation). My kids are adults now and I have to say that with the combination of home and preschool being on the same page in those early years, they were able to overcome the bombardment with the "sticker approach" (disguised in numerous ways like treasure boxes, free pizza, extra recesses, etc) in traditional school.

It really did seem to help to be able to avoid this reward system in the critical early childhood years. That is when a lot of their brain development is internalizing a lot. So, if you can avoid it in the early years, I think children can thrive with an inner motivation despite the reward culture that is followed by so many adults in schools. As parents we have to do whatever we can to prevent that dependency on only doing something in order to get rewarded. It is not an easy battle because this mentality is so ingrained in our culture that I found that my attitude was often in the minority with my own children and now grandchildren.

It was refreshing to read another parent's thoughts on this topic and to see enough into the situation to try to change it in his child's life. I am glad I didn't have to deal with the sticker stuff until they were in first grade and older. When they did get exposed to that way of thinking, it didn't seem to change what we had worked on so hard at home (and was reinforced at preschool and K) before they entered traditional school. My grandchild ran into the reward system when she went to K and she never got into that treasure box mentality. It just wasn't something she was interested in. I think you are on to something that could be discussed further and changed in way too many early childhood education programs. Thank you for bringing this topic up. > > > > > >

Mar 19, 2012

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pktchr On 3/15/12, richard wrote: > Advice please! > > My toddler is nearly 3 years old. Her teacher put a sticker > on her forearm as praise and recognition. This is after I > complained about the teacher's use of ink stamps on her > forearm with the same explanation.

Years ago, our kid's pediatrician wouldn't give stickers or...See More

Mar 25, 2012

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d.mac My guess if your child's teacher is either not a parent or never had a problem with their child and stickers. I do believe liking stickers and band aides and things is a phase all kids go through. We use them for fun though, not so much reward. If you have a problem with the external rewards I do suggest you start looking at private schools now. Mo...See More

Mar 27, 2012

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Leah Most public schools I know will reward a kid to death! Although, I believe in recognizing extra effort, I think this is a classroom management method that has gotten out of hand.

Richard, thanks so much for posting a link to my article! For a direct link, click below

Apr 7, 2012

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richard On 4/07/12, Leah wrote: >> Most public schools I know will reward a kid to death! > Although, I believe in recognizing extra effort, I think this is a > classroom management method that has gotten out of hand. > > Richard, thanks so much for posting a link to my article! For a direct > link, click below

Just came acro...See More

Jun 12, 2012

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