My daughter's school has this thing called "The Diamond". If you behave well, or do good work then you go up the diamond. This all sounds great so far. But if you behave badly, or do something against the rules, then you go down the diamond. Suddenly sounding not so good.
But it get's worse. If you finish in the lower parts of the diamond then you can be sent to the headteacher, or even miss playtimes. Yes, they stop children being able to exercise and get fresh air!!
Reason's for going down the diamond can be for talking or hitting (kind of OK, but some children just don't conform well the the strict rules of keeping still and quiet for long periods of time at school, and they shouldn't be punished for this).
Apparently you can also go down the diamond if you don't get changed fast enough after PE!
There are better ways of encouraging children, without completely throwing their mental health out the window. But it's symptomatic of the way's we deal with people generally who are slightly outside the narrow field of what it conservatively "normal".
People with alternative lifestyles, people who identify as LGBT, or even ethnic minorities within a fairly heterogeneous population are often selected against through various cultural processes or expectations.
Obviously as parents there is not much we can do to change school practices, only try to explain to our daughter that we love her for who she is and the school diamond isn't going to have any effect on that. But it will take time.
Here is my poem for this post:
The
Fear in
My daughter’s
Eyes at the thought
Of dropping down the
Diamond; A system to penalise
Those less able to conform to the rigidity
Of the classroom; In the way we take money from
Those less able to fill in a Universal Benefit claim form;
Or
Ostracise those who do not identify with binary
Gender; Or think less of those whose
Skills lie with their hands instead
Of their brains; We should be
Inclusive and encourage;
But like diamonds
We all have
Flaws
