My son has just left a Montessori environment and is in a science based charter school. While he is aged for 2nd grade, his academics are far beyond this level. I have avoiding the "skip" conversation in Montessori, but I fear he may have just outgrown 2nd grade. Especially since his teacher has ADDED an automatic timeout to the school's color chart discipline system. "Way To Go", Green, Yellow and Red (which is accompanied by a note or call to home) is the standard amongst the school. His teacher (advertised as full time gifted but my personal research has shown no such qualifications and experience only in K classrooms prior to this year) as added this extra little nugget. You get one warning, and then YELLOW = 7 MINUTE TIMEOUT. The warnings are cumulative not behavioral, so, if you have gotten ANY warning for ANY behavior the next time she speaks to you is a yellow. Not, new warning for new behavior.
Last week a little girl received a 7 minute timeout (did I mention they sit on the floor and not in a chair?) because she was at the back of the line. She stopped to tie her shoe, and when she was done the line had proceeded without her. She ran to catch up and since there's no running....TIMEOUT! (No mention of her proceeding the line without waiting for the girl...where was she going?)
My son received a timeout (without a warning) for asking for his pencil back from a child who took it in front of the whole class. "DS7, we don't call other children thieves. He says (surprise) that he doesn't have it. For (get this one) FALSELY ACCUSING him of stealing, go sit in time out." Yeah, because 7yr old boys on the 3rd day of school like to call out some kid they don't know in front of the ENTIRE class as a thief over a pencil. Mmmm...good call lady! (I'm still a little miffed about this, can you tell?)
Anyway, these timeouts seem to be used as punitive and not as a behavior modification. I'm looking to see if anyone has research onto the negative effects of timeouts on children this age and in this type of situation. To me, this seems outrageous, but maybe it's normal for 2nd grade, and I should just give in and push for his 3rd grade placement.
Thoughts?

Last edited by productionsam; 09/02/12 05:24 AM.