"Teachers should not give sweets and chocolates as a reward"

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

Schools have very comprehensive list of pupils' medical conditions which is circulated to all those who need to know. The class teacher would know not to give the child something. These things are flagged up very clearly, especially in the case of young children who can't be expected to take responsibility for themselves.

Generally, if it's a subsistute teacher they probably have no idea. Also, it's quiet upsetting for a student to know that they are not allowed the same sweet as everybody else because they are "different" from the rest of their peers.

Its the teachers job to motivate the young child, at that age children are inquisitive and can be quite receptive to education but teaching a toddler is different to teaching a teenager at a young age such as 3 or 4 a teacher should be trying to make the subject of their lessons fun.

If a teacher of children of such a young age is having to break out sweets, they should probably ask themselves if they're really cut out for the job.


Again just to keep it clear, i have no problem with celebration sweets, like at Christmas or on birthdays, or cupcakes or whatever.

I also think its unprofessional to accept gifts from students even at the end of term or post exams. But this is just my opinion and i fully appreciate why its done, i just feel it is unprofessional.

They should have been told. Documentation for cover lessons with supply teachers includes special needs information. I'm sure it is upsetting for the child, hence the tendency to give stickers and so forth. If I were a primary teacher I would handle things differently to the way I do now. It's the kind of thing they get training on. When I give things out at the end of term, I offer a free choice of the edible and non edible, but I teach at secondary level.

This raises awareness, there's many supply teacher who don't. Not necessarily in my school, but others. There was something on the news last year, about a young boy who suffered from a heart attack due to a teacher giving him chocolates. Teachers really need to be told about anything and everything, especially for young children.

I doubt giving kids a funsize pack of haribo as a reward for something is going to contribute much to the obesity rate.

But at such a young age, around 4, students probably are not aware of what ingredients they are not allowed. They may have a vague idea, but maybe not 100%. Also, at that age students may even think "my mum isn't here, let me just risk having a sweet, she won't know, nothing will happen"

What? ...sweets? where the hell did you guys go to school?

what are you trained dolphins? 'Well done Timmy, now catch this chocolate in mid air with your mouth'

Just reinforcing children's dependence on instant gratification and setting them up for a hard fall in in the long run.

Children should not be receiving sweets, treats or anything of that nature from their teacher, if its someones birthday or a reason to celebrate then its fine, but the idea of using treats to reward acceptable behavior and favorable performance, is this a school or Battersea dog home?

I disagree with this statement for scientific reasons. When an uncertain reward is anticipated the levels of dopamine in the mid-brain region increase dramatically than if it were a predicable reward.

Dopamine is vital in the reward structure of the brain, as is the reward structure to learning. It fulfills the desire for recognition and achievement. Therefore giving sweets and chocolate as rewards promotes and helps learning. However, the rewards must be unpredictable to cause the raised dopamine levels, if they were predictable their would just be a short spike of dopamine and nothing afterwards.

No! The occasional sweet and little treat hardly does any harm, it's a great reward incentive for quizzes. And it doesn't have to be just sweets, but biscuits too. I remember in Reception every day during 'play-time' that we got to have a Rich Tea biscuit if we wanted to. It wasn't cookies or anything too trashy. At the time, Rich Tea biscuits never tasted so good!

I won sweets in a uni lecture.

This question aroused on the news a while ago, people argued that
•When you reward a child, they believe they are perfect and don't continue their hard work
•Giving sweets are bad
•If a teacher is unaware of allergies a child has, they may give them a chocolate they shouldn't be eating

Honestly though, I am in favour of giving sweets as rewards

First point contradicts with behavioural psychology and makes no sense anyway: if you do something and get rewarded for it, you'll repeat that behaviour.
Third point: if a kid has allergies and willingly takes food they know they shouldn't eat, then thats the kid's fault xD