Supposed motivation.

K & M had the final 'fun' session of the 'term' of 10 swimming lessons today, which they always look forward to and I don't.  I don't have anything against the last one being 'fun', I think it's good that they are now comfortable having watery fun that includes ducking under water, something that took K in particular quite while to manage.  The thing that I don't look forward to, is that it's the culmination of their teacher's thing of deciding on a 'swimmer of the week', as the 'swimmer of the term' wins a prize (invariably sweets/chocolate - which is another issue).  I don't know how he decides on his swimmer of the week, but my feeling is that since the amount of effort put in can't ever be truly judged by others, it is as likely to be demotivating as it is motivating.  He clearly tries to share the 'honour' around, but in that case it isn't even based on his perceptions of effort or attainment, which makes it even more arbitrary.

K is completely and utterly unconcerned by this supposedly motivating tactic and really couldn't care less whether she 'wins' or not, being very much 'self contained' in this respect.  M, on the other hand, gets deeply upset by the apparent overlooking of her efforts and achievements and can't understand why others (particularly K) have been 'swimmer of the week' more frequently than she has.  So naturally it was K who was pronounced 'swimmer of the term' today and received a bag of sweets (which she shared of her own volition with both M and me).  I commented to their teacher that I really don't like his 'swimmer of the week' thing and that it always caused upset for us, and he tried to smooth things over with M by having a quiet word with her, telling her that she was really close behind K, but he really didn't understand that it's not the result that bothers me but the whole concept.  All the children, as far as I can see, really enjoy his lessons, they get out of the pool happy and buzzing and then all quieten down for him to pronounce judgement over them as to who has done 'best' that lesson, leaving them either happy because they were the 'one' that week, disappointed or upset (admittedly it seems only to be M who actually gets upset) or completely unconcerned.  Hardly positive motivation!