{The Ticket}

The Chambersburg School District has a system in place for handling discipline problems at the elementary level. When a student disobeys, he or she pulls a ticket. Depending upon the teacher, that may mean the student loses a privilege, gets a note sent home, or is separated from the other students. If they pull multiple tickets in one day, the parents will receive a phone call and further disciplinary actions may be taken. What I like about the ticket system is that it is consistent in every single elementary school in the district. I also like that it seems to be effective at keeping most of the younger kids "in line".

Our family was introduced to tickets last year when Sasha entered kindergarten. I'm proud to say that Sasha is very well-behaved at school. She doesn't want to get in trouble and wants her teachers to like her. So last year she was one of only two or three (I think) students in her class who didn't pull a single ticket. The only thing she got as far as I know was a warning for talking in the hallway. Not only were Cory and I proud of her, she was proud of herself.

First grade has been going much the same way. Sasha listens, does as she's asked, and is excelling at school. We couldn't be happier. Then on Monday of last week we got a bit of snow. Not much - just about an inch. And it happened. On Tuesday Cory met her at the bus stop. When they walked in the door I was greeted by big tears streaming down Sasha's face and she was sobbing about something I couldn't understand. Finally I made out what she was trying to say: She pulled a ticket. Her world came crashing down around her as she thought Cory and I would be mad and disappointed in her. Her perfect record was perfect no more.

So what did our dear, sweet girl do to pull a ticket? Did she cheat? Backtalk the teacher? Hit a classmate? Tell a lie? Talk out too much in class? Nope.

She threw a snowball.

And one of her friends told on her.

I had to laugh a bit when she told me what happened. She threw a snowball! Of all the things she could have done to get into trouble, this isn't anything major. I reassured her that it was ok and we weren't upset with her. In fact, I'm kind of glad that she finally did pull a ticket so she didn't have the pressure of being "perfect" all the way through school.

Of course, I also reminded her that she shouldn't have thrown the snowball and that someone could have gotten hurt. Kind of like last winter when I threw one towards her and busted her lip open because there was a chunk of ice in the snowball. Yikes!

I think this is a good lesson for Sasha. She's not perfect, but she sure is going to try hard to tow the line once again. Now if only I could enforce the ticket system here at home . . .