Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
...this kind of thing just seems a bit like shaming and divisiveness rather than healthy competition. ... I strongly suspect that this isn't tied very closely to content mastery in the first place, and is probably REALLY punitive for any students in that class who have slower processing speeds or deficits that limit the neatness of their work or their relative attention to detail (math comprehension notwithstanding).

Exactly. At back-to-school night, she told us that all that mattered was improvement. That sounded reasonable. But if improvement is all that matters, why is she giving sweets to the kids who finish in less than x minutes?