Sign of Shame: I got 3 F's

[tropicsgoddess]

This 7th grader in Kendall, FL got 3 F's and his father tried everything to get to him about getting good grades to no avail. So as a last resort, the father made his son wear a sandwich board sign that he got F's and to honk if something's wrong with that during the kid's spring break. I know that if me or my sisters EVER got 3 F's our parents would've killed us. Hell, in all honesty I think they would've grounded us until the next interim report and report card came out with better grades. As unusual as the punishment is, I think the father did what he had to finally get to his son to study more.


Link!

[DrFaroohk]

Overall seems like a good idea to me.

Some might say "That doesn't teach the kid to get good grades, it teaches him to hide it better"...well that's his failure isn't it.

[Greenday]

Some kids can brush off any normal punishment or threat so sometimes it takes an extra creative punishment to get them to care. Gotta do what you gotta do.

[crashhelmet]

One F would've landed me back in Catholic or Military school. For 3 Fs, my parents would've found a Military Catholic school.

[HYHYBT]

Some might say "That doesn't teach the kid to get good grades, it teaches him to hide it better"

I'm sorry, but that doesn't even remotely make sense in this context.

[jackfaire]

I'm sorry, but that doesn't even remotely make sense in this context.

Actually it kind of does. If my parents idea for getting me better grades was instead of figuring out why I wasn't getting good grades involved mortifying me then I would try to make sure my parents didn't know about my bad grades in the future.

And if that failed I would get bad grades in all of my classes just to spite them.

[Greenday]

And if that failed I would get bad grades in all of my classes just to spite them.

Yea, that would teach them! While sitting in summer school, you can think about how much you really stuck it to them!

[jackfaire]

Yea, that would teach them! While sitting in summer school, you can think about how much you really stuck it to them!

lmao. Wow did you think I was saying it was a smart thing to do?

I am pointing out what being an angry kid would be thinking. I had a teacher that tried public humiliation it often backfired.

When your a kid and people are persecuting you instead of helping you then yeah you kind of want to tell them to piss off. If their idea of helping is instead of tutoring you in Algebra or figuring out why it's a problem for you they just want to mock you for being dumb then yes your reaction won't be the smartest but it's hard to want to improve if everyone is making you feel like a loser.

I screwed up a lot in school because rather than try to figure out why I wasn't doing well I would get long speeches on why I was better than that and how i should be so smart etc.

Very little actually trying to figure out why I would do badly on something.

[HYHYBT]

I was saying it doesn't work because kids *can't* hide their grades from a parent interested enough to bother checking.

[Rapscallion]

I'd say this is more a lesson for children of other parents.

Rapscallion

[blas87]

My punishments for anything below Cs weren't as humiliating, but I dare say almost worse because I was forced into isolation and not given any privileges until I was a "good kid" again.

[Andara Bledin]

Actually it kind of does. If my parents idea for getting me better grades was instead of figuring out why I wasn't getting good grades involved mortifying me then I would try to make sure my parents didn't know about my bad grades in the future.

Except that your supposition has no bearing on this case, since the father is involved with his son's school performance and notes that this was "the last way he knew how to try to reach his son" and stating, "If I don't do nothing, he's gonna be a statistic. And I don't want him to be a statistic."

I am pointing out what being an angry kid would be thinking.

Except that, apparently, this kid isn't angry at all, telling a local news station, "I don’t like it, but I know that it’s my fault," and, "I'm sorry that it had to get to this point. When I get back to school, I'm gonna do better."

Quotes from this Huffington Post article

The son isn't stupid, but he's obviously been having difficulty being responsible, so the father gave him a tangible short-term consequence for his recent actions, because the whole "have options beyond unskilled labor such as, say, wearing a signboard for advertising" is a much more nebulous concept in most teens' minds.

^-.-^