Excuses kid's will use and how to deal with them

Brandon Currie, CSUMB Service Learner, and volunteer at Marina Vista School offers the following observations.

It would be great if every child immediately loved to run but realistically some kids will do whatever they can to get out of running. The most common excuses are the following:

1. Some simply say that they have to go to the bathroom.
You’re obviously not going to tell a child that they can’t go, so you let and two minutes later you notice them playing on the play ground somewhere else. Best bet is to deal with this directly and get the child and bring them back to the running area. If you can't leave then send another child running over to get them

2. Some kids will fake injuries.
Kids tend to fake injuries. They will come up to you and say they twisted their ankle and can’t run anymore. School policy is to send them to the school nurse. They do an academy award limping act over to the nurse's office but five minutes later they run out of the nurse’s office like nothing happened. AGain the best action is a direct one to bring them right back to the running area.

3. Some children generally lack motivation.
They will start running like all the other kids, however, after running for only a short distance they will start walking. Motivating these kids is hard and takes some work. Using the buddy system and making them run with a friend is helpful. Running with them yourself is always motivating. Reminding them of the JUST RUN incentive program helps and that they can go farther if they ran than walk.

4. Kids will also cut corners while running or try to take advantage.
Sometimes we think it's human nature to cut corners just to make the mile shorter. These kids don’t necessarily lack motivation, they could just be looking for a way to beat the system; the kids will usually only cut corners when the teacher isn’t looking. Many kids will also say they’ve ran more laps than they really have. They will have to run four laps around and will come in one their second lap and say that they have only one more to go, they try to see if you have been paying attention and if you haven’t they win. It's best to watch them and confront them about this situation as well. Instilling a sense of pride and honesty is part of the Just Run program.

5. Some more sophisticated children will also fake having asthma.
They will fake shortness of breath and say they have asthma and can’t run anymore. When you ask the child for their inhaler they either don’t have one or “forgot it.” If the child is smart enough to know what asthma is they will try to use that as an excuse, it is up to the teacher in charge to know the medicine for asthma and the symptoms so they can make a decision.

6. Many children do the FALLING in front of you technique.
It's amazing that a track is so big but most falls occur right in front of the JUST RUN leader. Some children will run a lap then fall at your feet panting. It's best to get them started again and explain that everyone else is getting ahead of them. It's important for the group to cooperate.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?
What can be done to help eliminate these types of cheating by the children while their running? You could do a great many things. For starters, you could try to motivate the children at the beginning of the program to instill a sense of honesty and pride. One great aspect of the Just Run program is that besides the individual incentives, it is a group of children running toward a group goal of accumulating miles. Each childs' mileage helps the group. Starting each session with encouragement and a reminder of this definitely helps.
Shout encouragement to the children as they are running and try to keep them motivated the whole time they are running.
Material rewards, no matter how small, can be motivational, until the child develops the necessary internal pride and motivation and love of running. Kids always seem to be more enthusiastic about anything when they can get a prize at the end. We used healthy popsicles on a hot day to motivate our kids and it was the first time that each child actually ran the whole mile.
Some of the kids that were cutting corners or cheating about their laps were motivated by a little fear. No credit for cut corners or any of their running that day works wonders. Telling them they will lose their recess or they will have to go inside and be in “timeout” will motivate the kids to work harder and stay focused.
In terms of kids cutting corners, seeing them and immediately dealing with it is the most important. By catching them cheating you can then make it known to everyone that you caught them and by doing this hopefully it will show them that they can’t get away with it. It may take a while, but when you make it a point to stop that kind of behavior it eventually disappears.
We have found that when a child complains about being sick or injured there is nothing much you can really do about it on that day. The idea is to make the program fun and that if a child misses a day they feel bad because they miss the fun.
The most important aspect of the program is that you can help these kids stay motivated by being motivated yourself. If you are having fun you can make the experience fun for the kids and the program’s chances for success are that much higher.