by Suzane Jlelati, Aminah Khan and Elise Tran, Staff Writers
Four years ago, B4L (Barons for Life) cards were created by supervision with a goal to encourage other students and look for a better way to include everyone in the Baron spirit.
“You always know when you do wrong because it’s being brought out but when you do those good things, it’s not always acknowledged so this is a way we want to encourage others to do well and it’s a recognition program saying, ‘Hey, we saw that. That was really good,'” said Dawn Basquez.
Although the B4L program was designed to encourage and reward positive behavior school wide, some students have reported that not all teachers hand out B4L cards.
There is no set protocol stating that every student must receive a B4L card, but teachers are highly encouraged to pass them out. Supervision also passes out B4L cards to students who might not have them.
“We have so many students who do so many good deeds and we just want a way to recognize them,” said Basquez.
Students appreciate this recognition and enjoy participating in the program.
“I think that the B4L card is a great idea because it’s a way for students to get rewarded for doing good deeds for not only academics, but just helping out the school in general,” said Brandon Truong (‘20).
“It’s a cute and fun idea, but it doesn’t really motivate me to participate in school activities or dress-up days,” said Amy Phan (‘19).
Some teachers also have mixed feelings about the effects of the B4L program.
“The only negative thing I find for B4L, even though I love the program, is that I run out of stickers frequently and I have students nagging me about getting stickers,” said French teacher Ashley Houlette. “They’ll drop their pencil and someone will pick it up and they say ‘Oh, B4L!’ [students only doing good deeds to get rewards]. That’s the only negative thing, but I really like the positive reward system.”
Some teachers find the B4L cards to increase school spirit and positivity.
“Catch them [students] being good cause then you start these new relationships and it’s a way to build trust with students. What I’ve seen is that students get happier and more positive and that emanates to other Barons and the whole vibe of my classroom starts changing,” said math teacher Ryan Mckernan. “The B4L stickers, if those start becoming an item, then they’ll become an item of positiveness.”
