He was fine, but stalled like crazy. I managed to get him into class about five minutes before cleanup time, but I think he’s worried about losing a smiley face. It occurred to me that he’s lowering expectations on himself (ours and his) by continually telling us that he “wants to use bad behavior” and “wants to take down a smiley face”. He’s kind of insulating himself against it happening so that if it does happen it won’t be such a disappointment.
It had to be startling to him for that to happen, given how he’s never been in any trouble or called out for any reason ever before and he’s been going to “school” for nearly all of his life that he can remember at this point. He doesn’t blow that kind of thing off and move on to a new day as easily as others.
So, how to deal with it? Don’t know. On the one hand, we could send the message that smiley faces get lost for everyone and it’s no big deal. But clearly we can’t carry that too far. But if he doesn’t relax about it, I’m afraid that it will happen more. And if he starts to expect the worst at every point in his life to make himself feel somehow better if bad things do happen, that only leads to self-fulfilling prophecies and an unhappy life.
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