5 year old French School Magnet Punishment System

[Romika]

My dear little 5 year old boy is at a state school in Paris, France. His new form teacher has instilled a system whereby each of the kiddies gets a different coloured magnet for each time they step slightly out of line, from white to yellow to pink blue red etc, or some such.. and he's terrified of doing anything it would seem, being late, speaking too loudly, because of the stigma attached.
Does this seem hideously punitive and might stifle independent thought etc, or am I being overly woke? I know that they can be little nutters but it seems a little extreme.
Thanks!

Well it appears to work! How else do you suggest they discipline a class of 5 year olds?

French children have to abide by standards and good behaviour. How refreshing.

here @Romika some fun reading for you, from just a few days ago.
Is it acceptable for a teacher to punish a child by making them stand facing the wall? | Mumsnet

Hideous. Public shaming is not the way to instil good behaviour. I wonder how many adults would accept being given a red magnet in front of the rest of the office for not sitting still at their desk or whatever.

My daughter is 15 now so it's only 10 years ago that she was at the beginning of school.
They had "The Cloud". Everyday all the children are on a the regular cloud - so do something amazing the child gets put on the rainbow, do something naughty it's onto the rain cloud.
This apparently was very common a decade ago. I have no idea if it still is. The children didn't seem to mind it.
(This is English schools btw)

They had being on the sunshine or on the raincloud 2 yrs ago in our uk state primary.

My 12 and 8 yo also had a cloud system when they were 5. It seems like it works to me, except that with the cloud there is positive encouragement/reward too.

In my job (in France) I can visit 3 or 4 primary schools a day, they all have some form of discipline like this from GS to CM2. Some schools are stricter than others. I don't really see the children stressing, and actually teachers are starting to encourage good behaviour more, but sometimes teachers do have to give a cross, or a red traffic light or whatever form of classroom control they use. I much prefer this method to the teachers who stand and scream at classes, fortunately there are fewer and fewer of this type. I have also been known myself to ask a child if they would like me to put a cross against their name on the blackboard (more the CM1 and CM2). They always say no and calm themselves down. My own DCs were educated in France, it's not something I have a problem with.

I wonder if they’re being rather strict on what counts as a misdemeanour. It doesn’t seem bad as a method, mine had similar five years ago.

I want you to imagine that you have a class of 30 children. You have teach them actual stuff so they need to behave, listen, etc

Can you all tell me how you would achieve this? There are, at most, 2 adults in the room.
I would love to know people's ideas. Any kind of ' sad cloud' is out, parents complain about break time being removed, can't get them to look at a wall, no time outs, no shouting, obviously no physical punishments

My GS had the cloud when he started school about 12 years ago but their cloud was a rainy cloud, a normal cloud and a sunny cloud. When the children went into school they put their name on the cloud to show how they were feeling. I thought it was brilliant as the teacher knew who needed a bit of support and so on.

French children are generally well behaved and polite. I expect these teaching methods add to this. My friend was brought up and schooled in France for the first 9 years of her life. She has the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen and when I commented on it once she said all French children must do proper handwriting.

When do the magnets reset? The next day? Tell him you love him even if he’s got a magnet that day and that he can try again to have a day with no magnets tomorrow. Try to take the sting out of it for him. It’s just a reminder to keep to the behavior rules. If he gets it wrong sometimes that’s ok, he stops the bad behavior and tries again.

My kids had something similar with green amber red - also in France.

Like a lot of these things the good kids were largely good, the bad ones didn't really care and everyone gets used to whatever system they use.

It's not going to stifle your child, at worst it might annoy them if they get a punition unjustly, although not as much as if they get a collective punishment in my experience!

DS had it in Year 1 and 2 at his UK village primary, and he’s only 11, so not that long ago.

I went to school in the 90’s. I was once made to stand on a chair in the middle of the classroom for forgetting my book. I don’t think they do things like that these days 🤣

@caringcarer I used to live and work in a tourist town in England that had gazillions of school groups visiting every day.
The French teens were unbelievably dreadful in their behaviour.
Rude, Loud. No concept of waiting their turn. 🤣

If it teaches them to behave...
Don't step out of lie and you have nothing to be afraid of.

Teachers need to be supported by parents when they have structures and frameworks for behaviour standards in classrooms. Pupils need and feel secure in calm and focused learning environments.

It's a very common system and it's in use throughout the Western world - UK, US, Australia, a lot of EU countries.

That's not to say it's totally without it's critics as you can definitely find arguments against it. But it is very widely used and far from the worst option.

Interesting… to be honest not familar with this in a pedagogical setting but when I was scout and went to camp we had a bit of traffic light system. Interestingly we (the children) were also asked to evaluate our own behaviour. At the end of the camp we handed our traffic light cards to parents. Still a topic of amusement in our family as my twin brother allocated himself green lights for the whole week which was not the scores given by the camp leaders 🤭finding disciplinary system that works for all children and that all parents approve of is basically impossible. Maybe explain to your child that you want them to be as well behaved as possible but a bad magnet isn’t the end of the world and just because today you got a red one doesn’t mean that tomorrow you can get a green one :)

It's not much different from effort or behaviour ladders that are used here, is it?

YY "traffic light system" is the name for this kind of system more generally.

Five year olds, easy peasy to get most of them to behave well, even with more than thirty of them on your own... no need for names on the board.

Even the challenging ones who needed more support didn't get their name put on the board. Yes they got support to behave but it was more reminders of what they needed to do. Then there is the glare that melts concrete...

and he's terrified of doing anything it would seem, being late, speaking too loudly

The idea is that they learn to be punctual and polite and they won’t learn that if they don’t see those things as bad behaviour with consequences. It doesn’t sound that bad to me.

I think the ‘terrified’ thing is perhaps more about his character and being new to a school environment than the system itself. Lots of kids are worried about rules and upsetting the teacher when they’re very little. I suspect he’d be just as terrified if he got a stern “No shouting please; we only use indoor voices” rather than a magnet.