A Bad Message by Jeffrey Zable

I’d been giving out pennies to kids for about six months, as many I had in my pockets when they asked for them. Some days no child would ask for any; other days I’d maybe give out five; other days I’d give as many as ten to fifteen. Because I knew that the kids liked to receive them I usually made a conscious effort to have some pennies in my pocket. Sometimes when I gave out pennies I’d tell the kids that they were lucky pennies, but never specified what kind of luck they would bring. I mainly gave out pennies because I could see that kids really enjoyed receiving them from me, a teacher at their school. Then one day the principal called me into her office and said to me, “You can no longer give out those pennies. It will only get you into trouble. I just spoke with a parent who is very angry that you have been giving her daughter pennies. She said it sends a bad message to the child, that she doesn’t have to work for anything, that she can just get money for free. It seems that you’ve given her child three pennies in the last week and the mother wants it to stop immediately.” Shocked by this information, I responded, “It’s too bad that I have to stop doing something because of one parent when I’ve given more than a hundred different kids pennies and never heard a single complaint from any of those parents. I give out the pennies because it’s a fun way of making contact with the kids and I know that the children enjoy receiving them. I can’t see how I’m encouraging ‘freeloading’ by giving a child a penny once in a while.”—“I understand what you’re saying,” my principal responded, “but really a teacher shouldn’t be giving out money to students. It will only get you into trouble, so you had better stop right away.”-- “No problem,” I responded, and left it at that.-- And then those little rubber bands with pictures on them became popular, and as I could buy 10 or so for a dollar, I started handing them out, and got away with it for about a month until once again a different parent complained that she didn’t want her child wearing those bands as they could cut off the circulation in her child’s wrist.-- “O.K. O.K.” I responded, “No more pennies. No more bands. But may I give my own students pencils and crayons if they need them? How about paper? Erasers? And may I still put stars on their papers to show that I appreciate their work???”