Code Red

No, not of Homeland Security fame; I am talking about the behavior scale used in Ben's kindergarten class room. Blue is Outstanding, Green is Good, Yellow means Warning, and Red means Mom gets a call from the teacher.

Today I got my first call from Ben's teacher -- or more accurately, from the teacher's assistant. It seems that Ben was disrespecting classroom materials today despite repeated warnings. This is fancy for he was throwing things. Now, when I think "throwing things", I think having a tantrum/throwing things on purpose. But, apparently he was not doing anything out of anger, he was being careless in his putting away of things and was throwing things into bins, etc. (Which I personally wouldn't classify as a code red offense, but I guess if he was told multiple times to stop and didn't, I can see how he wound up there).

Now, why he decided it was a good idea to continue to do this after the teacher told him not to, I might never know. I decided that since it was his first code red offense I would let him off with a talking-to. I gave him an opportunity to explain what had happened, but he was mute. So I gave him the standard lecture about being careful with other people's property, which he listened to with his face buried in his pillow with his head turned just enough so that he could watch me out of the corner of one eye. He nodded at the appropriate parts, so hopefully he will get the picture and phone calls from school won't become frequent!