At KTB’s daycare, they never use the words “disobedience” or “bad behaviour” (or behavior, as it is spelt in American E.) But each child has a clothes peg assigned to hem, and depending on how the day has gone, the person picking up the child can see where the child has been…well…pegged.

One category obviously meets the approval of Those Who Matter:

“Ready To Learn” would be, in my day, “You are a good, obedient child”.

When the child doesn’t listen to the caregivers, it’s not called “disobedience”. For fear of being negative, this kind of behaviour is assigned to the category, “make better choices”:

(Notice where my Boodi Ma is, she ain’t….see below)

Teacher’s Choice, which, in my vocabulary, would be the same as Teacher’s Pet:

At the bottom of the pile, literally and figuratively, would be “Parent Contact”, which certainly seems to induce a lot of stress in the children (well, at least in Boodi Ma, who is often full of why such-and-such child was misbehaving and got put on this!)

Is it important to call common disciplinary concepts by different names? My daughter and I differ on this. I personally feel that no matter what a spade is called, that word soon comes to mean, exactly, a spade. But to A, avoiding attaching negativity to a concept is important..I feel that the negativity attaches itself, sooner or later…what do you think of these colours of behaviour?