This is not going to be 100% but I’m all for a layered approach to all types of security. This looks like a reasonable layer for school security.
Every Friday afternoon, she asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student who they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, she takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her, and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who can’t think of anyone to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down—right away—who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.
If there were a system to use these results, that would be a serious contender..
As a teacher, and knowing how a good teacher might use this, it sounds like a very interesting approach, one I may try.
OTOH, I’m sure Cabal / FBI would love to have that list so they know who to groom for their next wind-up toy, and who they need to derail because they are popular but have bad-think ideas. It’s literally generating a “most useful to target / subvert” list.
I wish you weren’t correct.
Wow. That’s the state of education these days? All she has to do is check who’s got the whiny communist parents, and on ADHD meds.
Kid’s are idiots. (That’s why they’re in school right?) They get in cars with pedophiles for candy. (Not the best judges of character.)
Go out and watch the playground if you want to know who the bullies are. Although it would probably be easier to just go look in the mirror.
Got any other 5 year plans there, Chase’s teacher?