Was I unreasonable to rig the school council election?

[Coffeeandteach]

I can tell you who will win when I look at the list of candidates. Every year it annoys me that some lovely, often overlooked, somewhere in the middle child will put themselves forward and read a thoughtful speech (written all on their own, at school) but never wins. They lose out to either the most popular or the most able child.

The child who got the most votes today had a speech that consisted of only, "I should win because I am the most popular."

I broke. I rigged it. The lovely, overlooked, somewhere in the middle child was announced the winner and she was delighted (and will do a great job).

YABU- You are the Putin of teachers. Shame on you!

YANBU- Sometimes you have to help the little guy

Well done @Coffeeandteach. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Maybe a year or two of good student leadership will change things, and have dc see first hand what is involved and what type of peer they should vote for.

@Kreacheriscleaning

I would do it. I also rig the weekly random ticket prize draw. The thing is that I know that the more ‘challenging’ pupils will probably have more in the pot as they are given them to encourage positive conduct but on the whole they could have been an utter pain in the arse all week so no way am I rewarding them with a prize and fuss in assembly.

I pull out a ticket and announce the name of the child that I’ve decided on whatever it says.
I do keep a record and make sure that each child has it at least once through the year though. Same with certificates.

I think you’re in the wrong profession. Those poor kids

Wasn’t this the plot in “Election”? And look how that ended.

@Coffeeandteach
How did the popular kid react?

I think that I can live with that poppy

Poor kids, indeed.

OP, I wish someone has championed me in this way when I was a child. You are my hero!

So look on this as a learning opportunity.
What has it taught the children?

The "popular" child won't know you did that because in your opinion they hadn't worked hard enough for it.
Nor will the rest of the class.
So no lesson learnt that way.

And then if it comes out-and there's more than a chance someone will start a conversation of "who did you vote for" or "who voted for X" and it will become pretty obvious.
Then the lesson they will have learnt is that if you're in a position of power you can bend the rules.

I've never come across a child of that age that uses the term "popular" either. It's normally used on here by either the popular troll or parents being disparaging about another child.

I’m not familiar with school councils. Is it children voting for a classmate to represent them? And you ignored/miscounted their votes?
If so, imho you were very wrong. Part of growing up in a democracy is learning that you have to accept the consequences of a democratic decision. If they’d voted for the popular but ( according to your implication) ineffectual and spoilt child to represent them, they would perhaps have seen that they had made a mistake. If they ever find out that the child elected did not actually receive the most votes, I would not blame them for losing faith in the process.

YABU to do this by rigging instead of by using a better system which you wouldn't have to rig in order to get the best candidate.

When my ds was at infant school, they just used to let the kids choose their friends to be on the school council. I said to the HT when I was speaking to her about something else (ds had had an operation) that I thought it was unfair and she promised to change the system. Days later, the next school council was announced, chosen by the kids. Clearly that conversation went in one ear and out the other.

At least at his junior school the kids had to give a proper speech and it was a joint decision between kids and teachers so not just a popularity contest (and ds managed to get elected when he was in Y4).

I don't think you were unreasonable.

On seeing the title, I was all set to hate you and vote YABU. But I don’t, and I didn’t!! Well done you! Are his/her parents obnoxious too?!

I'm not sure outright rigging is the way to go. What I do as a Y5 and Y6 teacher is explain that it's not a popularity contest, and if I had this speech in my class I would have- without mentioning names- explained to my class that they needed to think carefully about who they voted for and who put the most effort in etc.
And then I might have rigged it!
I ALWAYS say- even when it's a blatant lie- 'that what is really pleasing about the vote was they every single person who put themselves forward received votes' as this softens the blow of not being elected.

....that.. every single person

@HaudMaDug

👏 Well done Op, from an insignificant who's one and only part in any of the many school plays was to hold the curtain open when the rope broke.

But that’s nothing to do with your peers, and everything to do with your teachers. That’s a different issue

YANBU OP, I notice this a lot with my DD. She is 6 and struggles at school, she is trying but there are specific children that always get all the housepoints, win any competitions etc, even during lockdown parents would email the teachers all the stuff they had done at home homeschooling and it was always the same childrens work that was put on the school blog, my DD's was never once put up and I know how hard she tried with everything, even I started to give up in the end and stopped putting as much pressure on her.
I was always overlooked at school too, so I know how it feels, you have given the child that won a confidence boost and the one that didn't life lesson. Well done OP.

I love you.

It was no coincidence that at dds school last year both the head boy and girl and 1 out of 2 of the deputy head boy and girl all had parents who were teachers at the school 🙄 even the kids could see the blatant bias

All hail, Alexander Lukashenko!

Let’s hope ‘winning’ candidate doesn’t get picked on when it’s realised teacher’s pet was forced on them rather than popular girl .

What you did was shit. Change the system, don’t lie about the outcome of a vote

Im torn actually
On one hand, in your instance OP, i can see why you did it
But
At our school, any kid who dont have the right last name is looked over. We know they favor the farmers kids.
As a result dd just doesnt bother with the extra stuff now, we dont force her, she isnt stupid, she could see it and told us herself, she hears the names being called out at assembly, sees the names in newsletters, knowing she matched that kids ability or read as many books, yet nothing.
Me and DP watched one of the mothers actually rig sports day, guess whos kid got all winner ribbons?
Also guess whos kid missed out in the one event she would have got more than a participation ribbon? The mother literally pulled my dd jump length back and put her dd forward.

YANBU at all.... bravo honey, bravo 👏

Against the grain, but absolutely YABU, what exactly are you teaching at that school? If you don’t like something then be dishonest and lie? I would be furious if this happened at my DCs school ( they aren’t at school yet and are unlikely to be the popular kids, too quiet) all those children put their faith in a system and you corrupted it. If the system doesn’t work then change it, but be transparent. Am shocked if I’m honest.

@Coffeeandteach

So, this literally happened to me. I was bullied and unpopular and selected alongside an equally quiet boy to be our forms class rep by the teacher without a vote.

How did this work out for me?

By the entire class having a huge revolt and me being kicked off the school council after several months once they found out other forms had voted for their own reps and insisted on having a vote.

A humiliation I didn't deserve at age 11 and already struggling which was completely avoidable.

Hopefully your form don't find out OP

I actually hadn't thought about that in at least 20 years and remembering the feeling of 30 kids ganging up to vote me out to make a point makes me feel sick. The bullying never stopped.

We are all about to enter our 40s - I have to wonder if any of them ever have or ever will reflect on how badly they treated me for those 5 years.

Every single vote! Some kids need it more than others and it allows them the time to shine.

I don’t like this. The popular child must be popular for a reason. I don’t know why you are holding their popularity against them. If they won fair and square they should have won and that is that. It is disrespectful to disregard everyone’s votes in my opinion. I also don’t actually see why your opinion on who would be the best candidate trumps everyone else’s.