Learning targets on badges/lanyards

[aliboggles]

Hello. I have just discovered my DS has to wear a 'target lanyard' round his neck all day at school (primary). All children have to wear them and they consist of a badge holder on a cord (lanyard) like the ones adults wear at a conference for ID purposes. These ones have the child's targets inside, handwritten by the child, for Maths & Literacy.

I am disgusted by this, . It is labelling children and just wrong in my opinion. I do not have a problem with the targets, but I do have a problem with the lanyards.

I'd be interested in others views please.

I wouldn't see it as labeling. Isn't it just so the children can remember what it is they are supposed to be learning? I thought it sounded like a good idea!

Can you approach it from a health and safety issue, I.e. strangling from lanyards if they get caught?

I have never heard of such a thing and I admit I would not be happy about it either if it were my dc.

Fwiw, I would think at primary they would mostly be with the same teacher and mostly into estate classroom, so why the need for it? Our have their targets up on the wall. Easy to see if they need a reminder.

Didn't the victorians have to wear things round their neck saying things like 'empty vessels make the most noise?'
Dislike how public this is - what if everyone else has multiplying two digit numbers and yours has counting to ten? I couldn't be quiet on that one!

Is this a joke?

Seriously, a teacher has thought 'what's a good way of reminding the children what we are looking for?' Then they thought 'ooh if they had lanyards, they would be able to just look at them whenever they need to.'

It's not labelling the children

euphemia where i work the kids would read each other's labels and use it to infer intelligence. Potential bullying cause...

I can't see a need for it and I can see how it could lead to teasing etc.

DD's school has a 'Going for Gold' board.

By October half term, each child is set personal bronze, silver and gold targets in literacy and numeracy, and the children are awarded with a medal, that goes on display in the class, and a certificate when they achieve each target.

The aim is that the child will achieve their personal gold targets by the end of the school year.

The parents are informed of the individual targets, but the parents and children do not know anyone else's targets, unless they choose to compare...

I think DD's school has got the balance right on this one.

I wouldn't care about the targets I would be more worried about them strangling themselves (accidentally) or each other (deliberately)

When I was in school we had a star chart on the walk, and everyone got a different coloured star for learning the next up times table IYSWIM.

I can't really see any difference, though admittedly I was in school in the dark ages.

Thanks for all your comments, very interesting reading.

Regards H&S, the lanyards are easily undone (the clip unsnaps) in the event of possible strangulation. So that shouldn't be the issue. Yes an easy way to see targets, but why is it necessary? And everyone can see each others targets, which are different within a class, let alone within the school. It could well lead to teasing, bullying etc. Its just unnecessary and it hasn't been thought through. And one also asks the question as to why parents did not know about it .

Apparently it is seen as best practice currently within education, but many teachers do not implement it. I can see why. As adults we do not like wearing labels, why should a child be any different? My first reaction, as with many parents I know, was complete incredulity . One teacher friend of mine who is also a child psychologist said 'f**g disgusting'. To me it smacks of institutionalisation, at the very least old-fashioned and probably discriminatory in some way.

There was a study done in America in the 1970's after the death of Martin Luther King, where a teacher did an experiment with the children in her class (age 7) where the brown eyed children got treated very differently to the blue eyed children eg shorter breaktime, no talking in the playground etc. After a day or 2, they swapped over. It had a very profound and lasting effect on those children as they behaved very differently depending on their eye-colour categorisation and it was not a pleasant experience at all. The video is available online if anyone is interested, I can put the link on here.

Hmmm, before you get too het up, it is important to remember that most 'targets' are buried in a dull document that has then pushed into a filing cabinet. The biggest issue in a lot of education is letting everyone know what the target is in the first place.
Personally, I'd be delighted they were so conscientious.