What would I do?

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What would I do?
By Anne

You know, that is almost impossible to say. I agree that what the kids did was serious and I agree that the parents should be spoken with. Assuming I can get in touch with the parents, I would have all of us, parents, kids,
administrators (if possible) and myself sit down as a group, go through the situation, and decide on how to handle things. If I disagreed with any of the solutions I would say so and why. For example, one year a parent asked me to withhold lunch from their child if the child did not complete classwork. I was not going to do that!
If you are looking for me to say, "I would do X,"

then you are going to be disappointed. I realize that everyone is different and different things work for different kids. That's why I am offering this as a suggestion - plus it is what I would really do.

Token economies, according to Kohn, will not work. Sure - the good kids will collect their points and get their prizes - but they were never in trouble anyway. The bad kids will still be bad, they will still not get their prizes, and it will still not work. If you want to be proactive and try to prevent situations like this before they happen then you need to develop intrinsic motivation and rely less on extrensic motivation.