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One of my only memories from kindergarten was of the social control system the teacher had. There were three faces, a smiling green, straight faced yellow, and

One of my only memories from kindergarten was of the social control system the teacher had. There were three faces, a smiling green, straight faced yellow, and frowning red, arranged like a stoplight. Every child had a clothespin with their name on it. Behaving well? The pin with your name clasped the green light, etc. One day my teacher was trying to punish a troublesome student, who I only recall because of this incident. She meant to move his pin to red, but accidentally grabbed mine and moved it instead. I, instantly, burst into tears because I had nothing wrong, and still recollect my feelings of outrage decades later. I can only imagine trying to work through social credit bureaucracy as a child to correct mistakes, or understand outcomes.

en-us 7y ago
Wow reading this just brought a kindergarten memory for me. We had laminated apples on the wall, and if we were bad we got a worm sticker stuck on it for a week, we called it getting a "wormy apple". One day I was listening to an audio book with headphones and didn't hear the teacher call us back, so all at once she snatched the headphones off me, asked me why I don't listen, and gave me a wormy apple. I remember it to this day, I felt so wronged because I was doing an "approved activity" and felt I was punished for it. Seeing the worm on my apple made me cry and I never listened to audio books in that classroom again. So I don't know if making that sort of stuff electronic will be better or worse but I know I didn't like systems like that at all.
- protomyth 7y ago
  I wonder how many people have unkind memories of their kindergarten teacher? Mine had us color a bunny rabbit. I grabbed a crayon (purple) and colored it. I think I had seen a rabbit on Sesame Street of that color, and the 8 crayon pack doesn't allow for subtlety. She grabbed it from me, threw it in the garbage, and told me to color another one because that isn't a "proper color" for a rabbit. I slid the paper back and said something to the effect it's already colored because bunnies are white. Spent the rest of the hour sitting in a chair in the corner staring at the wall. Dad was "concerned" when he picked me up, and laughing in the truck. I was just very angry. I can only imagine what a points system would have done to me in school. I'd of probably been done in 1st grade because of that stupid volcano.

en-us 7y ago

Wow reading this just brought a kindergarten memory for me. We had laminated apples on the wall, and if we were bad we got a worm sticker stuck on it for a week, we called it getting a "wormy apple". One day I was listening to an audio book with headphones and didn't hear the teacher call us back, so all at once she snatched the headphones off me, asked me why I don't listen, and gave me a wormy apple. I remember it to this day, I felt so wronged because I was doing an "approved activity" and felt I was punished for it. Seeing the worm on my apple made me cry and I never listened to audio books in that classroom again. So I don't know if making that sort of stuff electronic will be better or worse but I know I didn't like systems like that at all.

protomyth 7y ago
I wonder how many people have unkind memories of their kindergarten teacher? Mine had us color a bunny rabbit. I grabbed a crayon (purple) and colored it. I think I had seen a rabbit on Sesame Street of that color, and the 8 crayon pack doesn't allow for subtlety. She grabbed it from me, threw it in the garbage, and told me to color another one because that isn't a "proper color" for a rabbit. I slid the paper back and said something to the effect it's already colored because bunnies are white. Spent the rest of the hour sitting in a chair in the corner staring at the wall. Dad was "concerned" when he picked me up, and laughing in the truck. I was just very angry. I can only imagine what a points system would have done to me in school. I'd of probably been done in 1st grade because of that stupid volcano.