Grader @ MindSay 
I'm slightly bothered by some stuff that's been happening in my room lately, and I need to know if I'm overreacting, or if my feelings are legitimate.
To summarize my class quickly, I have 3 boys, a 3rd grader (D), a 5th grader (E), and a 6th grader (A) who all have some level of behavioral and socio-emotional problems, with A also having some cognitive/academic issues (D is also pretty low). At the beginning of the year, we had a LOT of issues with compliance. We settled this by instituting a points system: You follow a direction, you get points. You don't follow, you don't earn. 4 times a day, we have a 'cash-in' where we tally up their earned points, give them play money, and let them spend it on anything from a list posted on the blackboard.
Computer is 20 'cents'. Going outside for an extra recess is 25. Going to the PT room or gym is also 25 'cents'. There are lots of other things on there, but those are the most popular. They tell us what they want, give us coins out of their can, and assuming they're allowed to cash-in, they get to do what they want. We keep a clipboard with running totals of what money they should have.
This is where the issue comes in. D often does not have enough money. He is very slow to comply (so if E earns 5 cents for a certain thing, he often only earns 3,2, or 1 because it took him 10 minutes to start doing what was asked).
At the beginning of the year, it was 'you don't have enough, pick something of a lesser value or save up'. To me, this was the fair way to handle that situation. In real life, if you don't have enough money for something, you don't get it. It's also supposed to send a message: you're in school, a teacher gives you a direction, you do it. In reality, it SHOULDN'T take us bribing you with money to do, but they're in my class because they can't really follow social norms at this moment.
Then, we started letting them go into debt a little. I guess like a credit card. We did this when someone had 22 cents and wanted to buy something that was 25; we knew they'd earn at LEAST 3 points in the next period, the debt would be over, etc. etc. I was okay with that. They had still worked for their reward, and just needed a little assistance to get it; kind of Special Ed in a nutshell. I think I was the first one to allow someone to go slightly into debt so they would be able to have a good period.
What's happening now is this. D is back after a month away, and I'm glad he's back. But he's still doing what he used to do before; not settling into work at a reasonable pace (not earning as much as he could), and then spending what is earned immediately because he wants to play with E and Parker. And I understand that feeling, he was gone a whole month and missed his friend terribly. However, if he only has 5 cents in his can, he should NOT be going next door. Or if he is, he should be 20 cents in debt. What's been happening, though, is E is a good friend who usually has a ton extra (his can used to hover around $2.00), and D tells him about how he doesn't have enough, and E, wanting to play with him, pays up. And I think that's really sweet and selfless of E to do, but at the same time ... it's not good.
What lesson does he learn from this? He doesn't get the point that you earn points for following directions and if you DON'T follow directions, your options get limited severely. What he's getting is, 'I want to cash in, I get to cash in' without any of the work. And they don't like A very much, so if he's ever short, he gets the shaft because no one gives him money to cash in.
It just strikes me as really unfair. I hate to make a big stink with 8 DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL, but still... am I crazy here? We either need to hold them to their debts, or go back to 'you don't have it, you have to wait'.
My neighbor (one of them) down the road to the west was out grading his lane and mowing the side of his lane. Nothing unusual about that right? Wrong! He was wearing his County Sheriff's badge on the outside of his workshirt and had a red light (those flashing kind that vol. folks use in rural areas for their pick up trucks and cars) down by his feet!
I burst out laughing my ass off and about sideswipped the guard rail right before I got to the top of his lane where he was waiting for me to go by so he could turn around! What made this so funny was the fact the tractor he was using to grade his lane and mow the side of his lane is such an antique thing that there was NO WAY in this wide universe he was going to catch me or anyone else with his tractor if he was going to try it! But he just had to have that red light ready to put on top of the tractor engine cover!
What was he going to do, slap that red light up top, slap that tractor in high (maybe 10 mph) and go after Thumpers brother for munching on his grass clippings!
My Gods we have a true blue Redneck for our County Sheriff and he is one of my neighbor's to boot! Goddess help me!
