Perhaps not a suitable title but here is my question.
Like you all know, we are having this program at our Islamic school very soon. We plan to hand out certificates to kids. I was under the impression that we will be giving a certificate to all the children for some thing or the other for the simple reason that little kids, especially aged 4-6 are very sensitive, and when their names aren’t called they will be really hurt. Instead of creating a healthy competition, it may hurt their self image.
But our lead teacher or principal decided to hand out certificates to only top achievers. So I suggested we have custom categories for the children, like the high achievers can have certificates with “academic excellence” on them, while other children can have titles like “most enthusiastic,” “great attitude,” “teachers helper” and all that so all kids feel special and their parents feel good as well.
I think your idea is excellent! I think children of such a young age should be encouraged with positive reinforcement. It really really makes a difference when you pat a child on the back for something good s/he's done.
Your idea is brilliant! Little kids (especially at the 3-8 age) feel MORE encouraged to do their best when they are praised and made to feel special, rather than feeling “left behind” whilst others are getting rewards. The whole competition idea might work for older kids or teenagers (though I hated it ), but not for little kids
wow, I so agree with you Nik. Every child shines in their own way and its so important to them to be recognized for their own special qualities. Go for it!
Hmmm, sounds a bit mean to me. There is an Islamic class my friend's kid goes to and they did an evening for parents and only a few high achievers were given certificates, and on top of that the high achievers went for an all expenses paid entire day out to main attractions along with teacher (me suspects that teacher got a lot more out of it!) leaving the other poor kids to feel very left out.
Personally I do not feel that this helps kids to believe that they are all part of one big group, it would make them feel inferior to others. Your teacher should recognise that there are always kids in classes who will have less learning ability than others and no matter how many terms they stay for, they will never be up to the mark of the high achievers and will feel hurt that they never had any certificate / honours.
Surely the main purpose of the Islamic classes are to provide kids with the opportunity to learn about faith, rather than turn it into a competition?
Well I did speak to her last night at length about how kids react. She herslef admits that she's too hard even on her kids but she thinks that this way works because the kids have something to work towards.
I told her that 5 year olds don't think that way. It's only after kids are in middle school that the concept of competition in a healthy way sets in. We need to reward children of this age, and it's not like we do it all the time. We need to make them feel special and appreciate their committment and spirit.
Well, at the end of the day, this is what happened.
She ended up handing our certificates to everyone for completing their levels and then specific ones to recognize special achievements. Luckily the other teachers were with me on that as well so together we were able to convince her and she did end up admitting that it worked out well because all kids went home happy.
Yes there was still this one kid who felt bad that he wasn't recognized for special academic achievement. So I hugged him and told him that we are always proud of him and that sometimes some kids get a certificate and sometimes others do. So he held my hand and sat next to me for half hour and before leaving said, "thank you teacher Hina, you are right. I'm good."
), but not for little kids 
