The Red Light Incident

My grand son Joe had a "red light incident"! I am not sure if it is done around the country or not, but in our school district kindergarten through second grade get daily behavior reports. Each day the little person is given a red light (for bad behavior) a yellow light (for not so bad and not so good behavior) and the coveted green light for being well behaved.

These 'lights" are actual little colored circles that resemble traffic lights that are pinned to a board at the school. They also get a mark in their agenda that coincides with the colored circle at school. Some teachers put happy little faces in the agenda or sad faces depending on the color of the light. It is a lot to go through I guess.

Joe came home with a sad red face in his agenda. The incidence involving the kid that walked away from school left his teacher suspended and a substitute in his class. Evidently this substitute a steely gray haired matronly type, was a kindergarten teacher when clearly Christ was a corporal. She is let's say "cranky".

Joe started crying in school yesterday and they called my daughter to calm him. He was calmed but we thought it unusual that he would just suddenly decide after a week to get upset. When questioned about the situation he said "that teacher was mean to me" apparently Joe hugged his friend Zooy and was scolded for hugging her. Hugging is unacceptable behavior in kindergarten these days!

He was given the "red light" treatment because he disrupted the class by crying after being scolded for hugging Zooy upon her entry into the class room. When Savannah his big 5th grader sister swung by the classroom to pick him up for the bus he also had the nerve to hug her as well, and again was scolded for this outlandish behavior! Savannah by the way did not take well to the "don't grab at your sister like that, aren't you in enough trouble for hugging girls?".

Maybe it is just me, maybe I am old fashioned, maybe because I taught children with behavioral problems I think hugging is a vast improvement over some behavior I have seen. Maybe this woman does not realize that by telling a little boy to hide his emotions like joy and love and crying she is helping to create the next generation of men that are so bottled up they can't function in a relationship!

Poor Joe hopefully today will be better!