Bad to Badder...

One of our grandsons has a daily behavior classifying system in his school. The students in his class get a green, yellow, orange, or red light depending upon how well they behaved, with green being the best. This information goes home to the parents at the end of the school day.

The other day I asked him what color he got at school. With a seven-year-old's pouty expression he said, "I got a yellow."

"Why?" I asked.

After a short hesitation, he said softly, "I went to the Principal's office."

"What?!? Why?"

After a bit on coaxing, he said, "I poked so-and-so with my pencil…" 

"What?!?!? Why?!?"

There was more hesitation, but he finally said, "Because he said he was going to tattle on me…"

"WHAT?!? What did you do that he felt he needed to tattle on you?"

After some looking at the floor he said, "I was calling him names…"

"WHY were you calling him names?"

And with his next answer, trailing off into silence, "I don't k-n-o-w…", I knew I had come to the end of the discussion -- and the explanations. Besides at that point, I was a bit afraid to go any farther down the behavior path for the day.