I saw this story on Striving for Average.
“EDMOND, Okla. – Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter’s poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.
She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food.”
“This may not work. I’m not a professional,” said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. “But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try.”
In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter’s behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio from people either praising the woman or blasting her for publicly humiliating her daughter.”
I appreciate a parent who takes an interest in their children and does what they can to help educate them but I am not a fan of public humiliation. It often is effective at affecting change but it does a poor job of educating the person as to why their actions were wrong and leads to hard feelings that can manifest themselves and create new problems.
Hi Cindra,
I think that you raise an important issue. I do wonder what role the mother had in her daughter’s life prior to this. She may have been very involved, or maybe not.
Thomai,
Very true.
wow- socially she just made a lot of other parents seem a lot less strict (mean in teen language).
poor kid.
Maybe if the mother had paid a little more attention to the girl before this she wouldn’t have this problem. As a teacher I have seen stranger things. What I see a lot of is parents who don’t want to parent.. and it is always someone else’s fault.
Take it from the VP folks, this is questionable. It is good that the mother is trying to help her daughter but the solution is problematic.
I can’t agree with this. Public humiliation like that probably does more harm than good in the long run.
It is important to think about all aspects of what you do with your children.
Too easy to do lasting damage.