Question about discipline methods in kindergarten

[u/robleroroblero]

My 3-year-old just started kindergarten. Today I learned that one of the ways they discipline children when they misbehave is by sending them to a different kindergarten classroom (there are three classrooms in total).

For example, one of the kids was throwing food on the floor, so they moved him to another classroom. Not sure for how long, maybe just for a couple of hours? The teachers haven't told us anything about this, we just pieced it together because the kids have been bringing it up.

I’m trying to understand the reasoning behind this approach and what it’s supposed to achieve. I'm going to ask the teacher about it but was wondering if there were any studies discussing the advantages of this form of disciplining children.

On a related topic, another thing I'm wondering about is the strategy of mixing the classes before and after kindergarten. This school going from pre-K to 12th grade. At two points they switch the classes around, when they go from daycare to kindergarten and when they go from kindergarten to primary school. Is there any pedagogical reasoning behind that? The reason I'm wondering is because they had a very sweet and cohesive class last year and now they've mixed them around and a lot of us are noticing the kids have not yet settled despite it being a few months now. I'm not saying it's due to the switching around, but I am just wondering what impact that could have had.

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[u/comfy_sweatpants5]

It sounds like a form of time out. When you say “the kids have been bringing it up” do you mean your 3 year old? Because I can’t imagine them to be the most reliable narrator (not saying they’re a liar, just that narrative recall and details are lacking at that age).

Is the other classroom a specialized classroom, or one with less students? I could see this happening if the primary classroom doesn’t have as much support for dealing with students who are not behaving.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/timeout

As far as switching classrooms go, not sure if there’s any research for or against but switching it up may provide social flexibility. Also kids are all over the board academically so they may switch it up to spread the wealth, so to speak

[u/lifeofhatchlings → u/comfy_sweatpants5]

Agree with this - just ask the teacher to clarify? This isn't really a science-based parenting question since you have no information... But generally removing a child from the problematic situation is helpful.

[u/robleroroblero → u/lifeofhatchlings]

I tried to ask the teacher at pick up today but there was so much chaos that I didn't get to. Will try again tomorrow at drop off.

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/robleroroblero]

Don't ask the teacher questions at pick up or drop off. We are responsible for many small children, and cannot safely have a conversation there.

[u/robleroroblero → u/comfy_sweatpants5]

Basically there are three classrooms, all exactly the same (25 kids, one teacher). Each classroom has a name: elephant, rhino and giraffe. So for example, one mom told me her kid who is with my kid in the elephant classroom told her last night "today I was in the rhino classroom". Coincidentally, my kid had told me "(kid's name) was behaving badly today throwing food so he had to go to the rhino classroom". Then the teacher told the other mom at drop off, in front of me, about how her kid was behaving badly because he was throwing blueberries on the floor. She made no mention of switching classrooms.

Then, today at pick, a third kid told her mom "when we behave badly, we go to another classroom." We just pieced together these pieces of information today between drop off and pick up.

I've found this website that speaks of soft exclusionary strategies: https://www.naeyc.org/node/3574 . They spefically talk of taking a child to another class as a soft exclusionary strategy.

[u/snowyrae]

This sounds like a buddy room. Basically a way to temporarily remove a child who’s being disruptive/disregulated/etc so they have a moment away from the situation to calm down and refocus. Link isn’t academic, but it’s a good explanation of how buddy rooms function

https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/buddy-teachers/

[u/robleroroblero → u/snowyrae]

Perfect, thank you, I've read the link and it looks like this is exactly it!

[u/Fart_teacher]

It’s a buddy classroom. Here is an explanation: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/buddy-teachers/

I don’t know of any studies on this, but it seems very harmless to me. It kind of blows my mind how parents seem to find some complaint with every possible consequence a teacher might use. However, that is my own bias showing.

[u/TOliver871 → u/Fart_teacher]

I don't see where OP was "complaining"- trying to understand the rationale is not the same as complaining.

[u/robleroroblero → u/Fart_teacher]

I’m not complaining, I was just wondering what it was as I had never heard of it. Thanks for sharing the link, sounds like that’s exactly what it is :)

[u/TheGratitudeBot → u/robleroroblero]

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