Is Golden Time humiliating?
Q: As we don’t like humiliating children in front of others, isn’t sitting and waiting for your lost Golden Time to be up before Golden Time just the same as standing the "naughty" children up in assembly?'
A: An essential feature of the model is that we give a visual warning before a child loses five minutes of Golden Time. The younger children have a golden sun, followed by a golden sun with a cloud going over its face, followed by a sad cloud. When a child breaks a Golden Rule, their peg from the golden sun is put on the warning cloud and we ask the question - 'Do you want to come back to the Golden Rules by stopping that kicking: or do you want to break another Golden Rule, go to the sad cloud and lose one minute of Golden Time?' With older children the yellow warning card is on the wall with a statement above it that says 'Behaviour is your choice.' Then an arrow goes from one side of the warning to a bubble that says 'Break another rule and you lose five minutes' Golden Time' and another arrow leads-to a bubble that says 'Come back to the Golden Rules and we will celebrate in Golden Time.' Children must learn that behaviour is their choice.
The whole model concentrates on helping children move towards their inner
locus of control - where they learn to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions. When they have lost five minutes, or one minute, and are looking at a sand timer, they will be very clear - if the visual warnings are properly carried out – that they chose that consequence. They are reflecting on their behaviour - they are reflecting on the fact that they have lost a part of their privilege - and that this was their choice. So, I believe that sanctions uphold the self-esteem of children because they give them safe boundaries and show them that adults care enough about them to put the consequences into action. If there were no visual warnings I would not be so confident. If there is only a verbal warning, given that one in five children has a high level of chaos in their mind, it is highly likely they will not hear the verbal warning. . . and then, yes, life would seem unfair. But with the above system it is explicit, clear, visual and therefore they chose the consequence. Also they never lose all their Golden Time. If they have blown it all on Monday, they get the opportunity to use the earning back contract. So they have that choice also.
If a child is unable to work within this system, it may well be that their level of inner chaos is so high that they have moved into the child 'beyond' category and need to work on Tiny Achievable Tickable Targets instead.
Jenny Mosley
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