phillbecker

My dad has a Wurlitzer Jukebox loaded with 45′s. This summer Eddy & I went to TX to visit and Eddy loved punching the buttons on the box and listening to a couple of the songs. “Rocky Top,” “Flying Purple People Eater,” and the Star Wars theme in disco.

My almost 7 y.o. is in first grade. At the parent/teacher conference, my wife told the teacher that bribes and potential consequences don’t really affect Eddy. He won’t perform better just to get a reward. He’ll act the way HE wants to. And the THREAT of losing something doesn’t work unless it’s something really important. So my wife said “go ahead, try another sticker chart (for good behavior) or your reward system, but you have our permission to put him in time out if you need to.”

The class gets “pennies” for good behavior. Every friday they can buy little prizes for at least 10, or save them up for an auction with bigger prizes. We called them “bonus cards” when I was in school. Same idea. Good behavior +points. Bad -points/pennies. She has another system where students can reward each other for good deeds witnessed. ie. Johnny sees Kimmy do something nice for someone, so Johnny puts Kimmy’s name in the good deed jar. Names are drawn every so often and they get prized too.

so, where do you think this is going?

Teacher: Eddy had a good day monday. 2 stickers. Tuesday morning was good, but that afternoon he offered another classmate reward pennies to put his name in the good deed jar.”

HA HA. He was following her example of bribery. Now, he never broke a rule. She never said you couldn’t do it. I can’t get mad at him for testing a flawed system and checking for loopholes and weaknesses. I did say “If you knew it was wrong and did it anyway, that’s not good. But if you were just pushing boundaries … I can’t get mad for that.” He ended up losing the pennies and the nomination.

Eddy loves Star Wars also.

He had an elaborate plan to create SW VII with “like … 20 friends and we can make costumes and everything!”

Here’s the outcome.

Introduction

Presentation

“BOOO”

“Ruth, do you want me to read that book?”
“mm hmm.” [nods]
“I’m cooking right now. Can Eddy read it?”
“mm hmm.” [trots off]
“Eddy, could you read that book to your sister?”
“Why should I?!”
“‘Cause that’s what good big brothers do.”
“Oh… OK.”

the mic on the camera’s not so good, so turn up your volume a little to hear them.

Eddy was helping me pick out a video for him to watch while his sister was napping. I turned the TV on to set it to video, and Bob Ross was starting a painting.

ME: Oh, this is Bob Ross. I used to watch him paint when I was a kid. Do you want to watch this?
HIM: uh uh. No.

we watch for a few seconds.

HIM: I want to watch this. It makes my body … I don’t know. It just makes my body feel funny

heh.

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