Marketing companies are quick to point out the importance of branding products and will look for taglines that will stay in the mind of everyone and influence people to buy that product. From perfume to cars, from fast food outlets to drinks, from shaving equipment to computers, from sportswear to credit cards, from holiday destinations to chocolates, the brand, the tagline sticks.
Take any of the following slogans and the faithful reader will most likely know exactly what product is being sold: “Just Do It”, “Think Different”, “I’m Lovin’ It”, «Because You›re Worth It», “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, “The happiest place on earth”, “The Best a Man Can Get”, “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s…”, “Have a Break…Have a…”, “A diamond is forever”. There are no prizes for naming them all! If we know them, then they have been successful.
What is more, even successful companies have to continue to ensure everyone knows their brand, their tagline, their slogan. It is said that one particular brand of soft drink will be found in every country in the world (probably with cans littering the countryside) but they will continue to market their product. They want people to remember them. They will make outrageous claims. A security company had a billboard that simply said “The Best Security Company” but nowhere did it state who decided that - was it the Company CEO who said it once? Or the Secretary? Or maybe even the criminals? Who knows! Just this week, this writer received a pamphlet advertising a product which claimed that it was “The IT authority” – oh, really? Who says they are “the” authority?
Of course, it is not just consumer companies that brand their product but schools also do that. To an extent a school Vision statement, the school motto and badge plus the uniform are brands that people will recognise, even if it is just the colour of their sports shirt or the nickname nowadays of their sports team. Schools recognise that brands are important.
If that is the case, then schools should also be very aware of the danger of branding children, as often happens. Often a child is labelled as a “bad kid”. If a child misbehaves badly or inappropriately once, twice, three times (not a lady), then more often than not the child is labelled. The problem is though that usually the conditions or circumstances may not have been considered or taken into account. And once the label is there, it is generally believed, though, and remembered, but, as with companies claiming they are the best, just because someone says it does not mean that it is true.
In a previous article we considered how parents often made a similar (almost outrageous) claim that their child “would never do that” but here we need to consider the opposite perhaps – that claim is one which says that “that child will always do that”. There is a danger, of course, that if a child is so branded, then the child will live up to it, will almost delight in it, as at least the child is gaining attention. And, we might just add, because the child is so branded, so the parents may well be similarly branded, as the “bad parents” due to their child being a “bad kid”. [Generally, however, the “bad parents” is meant to read the “bad father”, but that is another story!]
What we must accept and remember is that just because a child has done a certain thing badly, he is not a “bad kid” suddenly. Yes, the child may be pushing boundaries but that does not mean he is a “bad kid” – it means he was pushing boundaries. And because he pushed the boundaries once, does not mean he will always push the boundaries. He is not suddenly a troublemaker. There may well be serious, significant reasons as to why he has behaved in such a way and we should seek to resolve those rather than simply brand them. Children will not always be like that. They are not cattle to be branded.
As parents and teachers, we must work together and see our children as people, not products. Branding a pupil is not acceptable – we must just not do it! We need to think different because they are worth far more than just a title. Schools must be the happiest places on earth; we must help our children be the best a child can be. We must give them a break. Who says?
- The BMW M4 CSL: Return of the Mack
- He always does that
