By Tyler Dahlgren

At Gothenburg Elementary, they live by the Swede Shield.

Fifth-graders Dax Hengen, Morgan Barnes and Elsie Cool know it by heart. Kindergarteners Chelsea Aden and John Venteicher do, too, and they recite its values with pride.

“Be respectful, responsible, safe and kind,” said Aden, taking a quick media break from teacher Blayre Miller’s kindergarten class. “It’s important to be kind, because you want to treat people the way you want to be treated.”

Students see the code everywhere, said principal Josie Floyd, so it’s no surprise they know it by heart. What is impressive, especially to the outside eye, is how they’re embodying it. At the start of the school year, staff at GES began handing out tickets to students “caught” living by the Swede Shield’s values.

“We had a committee this summer that worked on building that positive behavior framework for our school,” said Floyd. “Through that, one of our teachers had been using a little ticket system in her classroom, and she brought the idea forward and asked, ‘How could we build this system across the entire elementary so that all staff members, paras, custodians, teachers, any support personnel coming into classrooms, can participate in recognizing kids for positive behaviors that align with our Swede Shield?’”

Floyd and assistant principal Tomye McKenna liked the sound of that. Together, Gothenburg Elementary went for it. In just five months, staff has handed out more than 24,000 Swede Way Tickets to students.

“The students, they don’t ask for the tickets,” Floyd said. “All of our staff have these little pouches full of tickets and they’re watching for those behaviors and expectations that we want our kids to follow every day and recognizing them with a simple ticket.”

A simple ticket that can mean so much.

“It feels good to earn a ticket,” said Aden. “It really makes you feel proud.”

So far, 12 classrooms have amassed more than 1,000 tickets, including kindergarten teacher Blayre Miller’s. Whether it’s helping a friend pick up a spilled pencil box, pushing in chairs, wiping down tables or walking a friend who isn’t feeling well down to the nurse’s office, Miller has been amazed at how her five and six-year-old students have embraced the Swede Shield.

“It’s amazing the horizon that it builds for these kids,” Miller said. “I think it’s so important to build their confidence, to build their self-worth, and to just build that self-esteem and an understanding that doing something as simple as saying ‘You’re welcome’ or ‘Thank you’ can really make a difference in somebody’s life.”

They’ve made kindness a habit, in other words, to the point where it just happens out of habit. Being respectful is the norm, and, if you ever get the chance to visit Gothenburg Elementary, it’s obvious.

“When you earn a ticket, it feels like you’re a leader,” said Barnes. “When we do the little things enough, then they just become the things you do.”

Barnes is in teacher Ryan Eshleman’s classroom, along with Hengen and Cool. They eclipsed the 1,000 mark not too long ago.

“You feel pride,” Cool added.

The goal at the onset of this school year and always, said McKenna, is for everybody to be on the same page. Swede Way Tickets have helped everyone get in-synch. 

“The more we can celebrate and uplift each other, the better our school culture is going to be,” McKenna continued. “And, truly, that’s kind of what we want to do. We not only want to teach them the academics, but we want to help them grow into good and successful people. Building these kids up is our main job. We want them to leave here with a smile. We want them to know they’re safe here.”

You can have the clever mantras and the catchy slogans, but unless you’re fostering the culture you desire, that can all be for naught. The sheer number of Swede Tickets given out by GES staff serves as empirical evidence that the Swede Shield is working.

“I’ve tried to be kind and to help my classmates when they need it,” said Hengen. “That’s what our teachers really want us to do, to always be kind.”

Cool said that in her school, everybody’s a friend.

Hengen said he loves coming here every morning for that very reason.

“The teachers are really nice and fun,” he remarked.

For teachers like Miller, validation that they’re doing something special comes in the smiles that greet them every morning.

“They’re so ready to come to school each day,” Miller said. “Making learning fun is my biggest thing. I want them to want to come to school, and when they are excited to see me I know that I’ve done my job as a teacher to impact their educational journey in a positive manner. I love being here, and I want them to love being here, too.”

That journey always goes so fast. It’s hard to believe it’s almost February, but at Gothenburg Elementary they’re taking the time to appreciate all the little things that make a school year special.

They’ve got the tickets to prove it.