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

The Putin of the teaching profession. Well, either that or Matthew Broderick in Election.

Brilliant!

@allhappeningatonce

Think every teacher had done this sometimes!

So many times on so many levels! When we were forced to do Star of the Week I made sure every child got it at least once, I’d rig pass the parcel at Christmas, rig games like connect 4 so the kids could win and so on.

You might wish to change the voting system perhaps?
We ask those who wish to stand to provide 3 ideas to improve something in school per class.
The children vote for the best two ideas. No names are used and only the teachers knows who the ideas belong to. It isn't unusual for one child to nick another's idea and confuse the voters.

@Feckitimbuggard

I'm really sorry but I actually had to join to comment on this after about 15years of just reading. I have a son who was overlooked for school council places as he was classed as popular and the stupid thing was I got to see the count but the teachers done what you did and lied. I never told my son and trust me he was not clased as the cool kid by his peers only by certain teachers. He buggered up once in the whole time he was at school, when he let someone 3 years above him punch him to protect a girl in his year. But talking to his year group, as it is a political campaign, he did figure out what happened and would no longer help certain members of the faculty

How did you get to see the vote?

Well done OP! As someone who was definitely the lost in the crowd, never quite good enough, never did anything wrong and never got noticed pupil, I applaude your decision.

An element of this happens already, I think most parents with common sense get this - star of the week? “Oh crumbs Freddie hasn’t had one this year yet.....eek think Of something great he’s done this week!” “No Maggie can’t have it she’s already had it twice!”
Not that no Stars of the Week are legit. They are. There is a thought process and my school tries so hard to recognise the good. But I think most of you understand my point.....

I always wondered if this happened at my school for Head Girl. I was totally worn down by Y13 (for the reasons of being the average Joe lost in the middle and overlooked) and didn’t even bother putting myself forward. The popular girl (or seemingly the most popular) obviously did - the classic: always top of every class, ridiculously clever, clever fit boyfriend, always had the lead in school plays, always chosen for special trips.....I remember the last day of Y11 and her and her BF came to our form room and loudly announced at the door that they were here to sign year books if anyone wanted them to sign theirs (literally as if the were celebrities) - so unbelievable smug!
Anyway she did her big campaign, like all candidates did: posters, a speech, a campaign video. She didn’t win. She also didn’t get deputy. And honestly when it was announced in assembly, our Head started saying “and the Head Girl will be” - she actually got up at the name then realised it wasn’t her and sat back down. I still wonder if the teachers rigged it or if everyone was just fed up with her always being amazing and top of everything and the lead. Most of us knew she had cried to one of the teachers that day and left early. Meanwhile, the girl who won was just someone who was lovely to everyone and really seemed to get so much out of the role. Not an expected winner.

I think something like this is lovely to the child who otherwise would never win. Watching the favouritism and the same children always win isn’t always inspiring and doesn’t light a spark to do better - it just leaves kids feeling down and worse about themselves and causes them to give up.

I think the way forward is that the children will need to present their speech etc before the election. If they haven’t taken it seriously, they don’t qualify to stand. This would knock a few out.

Yanbu. I expressly set it up so I can rig it if I need!

Give me a quiet kid who will do a fantastic job over someone who just wants to act the clown and get out of lessons/have opportunities to take the mick giving speeches to the class. It's a no brainer imo.

In an episode of the Danish programme (season 3 episode 1) Rita did very similar.
The shining, entitled son of the mayor stood against an inclusion student - lovely but lacking in confidence.
Rita counts the votes; the shining one has 4 more than his opponent. Mayor's son arrives at her classroom door and boasts that he knows he has won by 4 because he asked everyone how they had voted.) Rita looks him in the eye as she tears up 5 voting slips, telling him something like, "The democracy in school is that the teacher makes the rules."
Yey! The inclusion student wins.

Welldone Rita.
Well done @Coffeeandteach.

I was in the pta at the time and it was decided by the school that they would help with the counting. If I'm being honest I wasn't that bothered but having a child who really wanted to get involved and was good friends with the person he was running against was interesting and I can see how you can really put children off trying

I love this! You absolutely did the right thing. It's so unfair that these school elections end up as popularity contests rather than voting for the best kid for the job.

I don't think they should allow children to stand year after year as it's the same kids all the time who win so all a bit farcical really. So glad you did this! It becomes effectively an uneven playing field if you don't!

Sorry my post actually sounds a bit harsh towards the girl who didn’t win - that was how I saw it as a student. Being fed up because she was always chosen was aggravated by the smugness that came through her campaign with it. She knew she was clever and looked down on everyone else (part from her friends and loyal followers) and would say things like “when I win” rather than “if” and I even remember her saying “obviously my deputy will have to handle some duties when I am preparing for my university interviews, as my chosen course requires a lot of time to prepare, which obviously those of you on applying for basic courses won’t have to do. Don’t worry, I’ll come and save the economy for you all in the future!”
I remember that word “basic”. Never felt so thick in my life.

Yay you!!

I mean, it's obviously wrong, but bollox to the little entitled popular kid!!

Yay the actually capable child!! Whoooooppppp!!

D'you think you could rig the Christmas Cracker competition as well?

You should have disqualified the popular child for not preparing a proper speech or just argument for being voted for. But I don't blame you. They didn't know you rigged it and to be honest I am pretty sure most elections are rigged in some ways and people do vote for the most popular because they can't be bothered to look into their policies properly and stick to what's already happening and those around them

I think YABU because if you run the election and it always gets an outcome you don’t feel is fair then you should alter the way the election is carried out, rather than rig the vote to go the way you want which is pretty poor, in my opinion.

Either have the vote (with an altered process- e.g. teacher votes and/or independent vote from a visiting person/people counting for more than each pupils vote) or simply appoint who you want to start with.

Surely, the fairest thing would be to get rid of the student elections, if the teacher is going to disregard it anyway though?

I remember in our final year at school, we were going to do what they did every year and have the whole "most likely to be prime minister, most likely to be on the news" etc and the teachers stepped in and said we weren't allowed to do it as our year was too bitchy! They were 100% right. It was going to be horrendous if it had gone ahead. I dread to think what they'd have said! I'd rather they did that than feed us a load of bollocks about quiet Fran getting the "most likely to be a rock star" prize or not very academic Jane getting the "most likely to join MENSA" prize 🤷‍♀️.

I wish you were my daughter's teacher!

Posted too soon!

What if the children ask each other and discover the outcome isn’t right? That might make the middle of the road child feel worse, and undermine the school process. I grant you that would be an unlikely outcome though.

I do understand why you did it, but I think it was the wrong thing to do.

I voted YABU because dd1 had a teacher who rigged an election.

DD1 never was popular, she never got voted into anything by her peers.
She put a huge amount of effort into putting her application in. She came home really happy because there were three of them going for the post, her, a popular girl, and another, and a couple of people who she'd expected to vote for the popular girl had said that they liked her application and had voted for her.

The results came out and the third girl had won.
But she and another child were asked to take something inside and as she came in she heard her teacher say "I didn't bother counting the votes, I chose who I wanted to win, I looked afterwards and it should have been miniwitch and boy B (who also didn't win)."
I spoke later to the other teacher who confirmed this had been said.

It really knocked her confidence, because she thought she must have done something wrong for the teacher to do that.
The teacher had come new into the school that year too, and the voting was done on the 1st day, so it wasn't as though they knew the children, they couldn't have known who was the most popular.

To make matters worse, the child who had won never bothered to go to any of the meetings, and refused to do the jobs that were associated with the role, so didn't even do it.

I do disagree totally with the votes for school things because whatever happens it becomes a popularity vote (dd2 had a time when they voted on the best fancy dress in her form and it was won by a child who hadn't dressed up) but I think rigging it isn't the way to do it.

Well done. It will help the chosen (by you!) child to shine and will teach the overconfident child that things can't always go their way. Excellent call.

You have become the Donald Trump of teachers - shame on you.

I think the system is floured..

At my ds's old primary they had to do a campaign.. top 3 got put through..

This isn't your fault though op..

In these circumstances I may have done the same but what concerns me is how loud teachers shout we don't give the main part to the PTA parents kids/ teachers friends kids is so strongly denied when it seems it does happen quite frequently.

You clearly ARE the Putin of teachers, look at that YANBU score! Your vote rigging powers are remarkable

Sorry, I don’t like it. Chance the process, but don’t just rig the result. And I say that as the former bright, hardworking, capable girl who didn’t get head girl because I wasn’t popular and the mother of two kids who have been continually been overlooked!

It’s just not cricket, sorry.

*change the process