I love ClassDojo, mostly for classroom management, but also for the family connection piece!

I do not agree with this program as it is not equitable for students. It teaches students that they are either good or bad period, not that there is diversity. It does not teach students that there is equality and equity in the world. It teaches that things are black and white. It does not show students that kindness, empathy, and understanding is what matters within the personal boundaries. It teaches an imbalance of power and control, which is what bullying is and what this program has taught. Shaming students of lower socioeconomic status, trauma history, and neurodiversity. This increases their risk of bullying greatly and seen in the school that I am now in with this program.

Zero Stars. But something positive to start! Schools have moved away from corporal punishment and siloing students with social-emotional and learning needs into the school basement. The bad news. Despite all research that shows otherwise, instead of building schools centered around community, collaboration, self-discipline, interesting and engaging learning, meaning making, and working toward common goals, many unfortunately for students have shifted toward command and control, extrinsic motivation, behaviorist, rewards and prizes centered systems like PBIS and the dreaded ClassDojo. Research has long buried Skinner deep into his grave. Yet, like a zombie he keeps emerging in new and ever-clever ways. If you need to bribe a child with a bell and a treat to do the work in class, you are essentially telling the child the work is not important in and of itself. Please. please, please, know that this app is a disservice to the nature of a human being. Instead, seek out information and resources from systems that work to build true inner discipline, community, and use logical consequences. Responsive Classroom, Cooperative Discipline, Teaching with Love and Logic, and Punished by Rewards are great resources and books to to start to move away from controlling children and toward truly educating them. Leave ClassDojo to Pavlov's dogs where it belongs.

I have no idea why the school is still using this highly unreliable aplication for conveying important messages to parents - it should not, and I'm not the only parent in the class who missed the messages because of the software glitch.