m115+Citizen+Ship+Credits


 * Dear Principal Swan, **


 * I am writing to you regarding my opinion on the Citizenship Credits. Citizenship Credits are credits awarded to students who tell the principle or office that another child has misbehaved, or is using inappropriate language. I think Citizenship Credits are not a good idea for Bedminster School. This idea causes multiple problems for the students and teachers. Here is my thought process on this idea. **


 * One problem is that this program will encourage kids to skip doing their work. For example lets say a student named Francis has science homework. She is really tired so she skips it and just plans to tell on someone tomorrow to get the points back. Kids would not be learning, but using tattling as a way to pass the grade. Also grades are supposed to reflect how well a child is doing in a certain class, certainly not how much they tattled. Have you ever thought of what will happen when they get to higher grades? Well if they have been doing amazingly in science by the points they got from Citizenship Credits, not by earning them, if they are placed in an enriched class they might not do as well as they let on in middle school. This could become a major problem. **


 * This program could also make kids want to find misbehavior to gain extra points. One example is lets say a student named Adrienne needs some points to pass his language arts class. Adrienne waits in the hallway to try and find some kid misbehaving. Also kids may even start to stage the bullying. Or they may even trick someone into doing something bad. At first it may be only one or two children, but later on it could become many kids. Overall this is just teaching kids a bad lesson. **


 * Another problem is that some kids could misconceive what was really happening. A misconception is a misunderstanding. Lets say Catalina and Courtney are best friends. Catalina's bracelet is always being stolen as a joke by Courtney. If some kid sees them and reports her for just playing games that could be a problem. You might think that fooling around is no place for school, but everyone needs fun sometimes. Also everyone has at least one inside joke with a friend or two. Well if someone sees or hears you inside joke and they take it as bullying the kids could be punished for just having fun. **


 * Even though some kids may see this as an opportunity to up the grade, there are more problems being made than being solved. Also it isn't right to combine this score with a child’s academic score. While it's is true that some people would benefit from this new concept,but most people would find this very non beneficial . They shouldn't earn points by tattling on their fellow students. It just doesn't make sense. So for goodness sake Bedminster School should not adopt the Citizenship Credits program. **


 * Sincerely, **
 * Lucy **