Document Type
Other
Publication Date
4-11-2025
Publication Title
Hank Bohanon's Blog
Abstract
One of my favorite holiday movies is The Elf (link) with Will Ferrell. Buddy (the elf) had great intentions but was often misunderstood. Without knowing that he was raised by elves at the North Pole, people misinterpreted his attacking a “fake” Santa Claus and pouring syrup on spaghetti as a sign of instability.
Like Buddy’s behavior, people can take parts of schoolwide models (link) out of context. Without understanding the entire framework, staff may misconstrue the intent behind interventions. This lack of knowledge leads to frustrations and misunderstandings. Implementers often start with good intentions, but their final results may not accurately reflect the actual model.
Recommended Citation
Bohanon, H. (2024). Buddy the Elf and PBIS: When Good Intentions Are Misunderstood. Retrieved from https://ecommons.luc.edu/education_facpubs/209/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
© The Author, 2025
Comments
Author Posting © The Author, 2025. This blog is posted here by permission of the author for personal use, not for redistribution. This blog was posted to https://www.hankbohanon.net/, April 11, 2025.https://www.hankbohanon.net/buddy-the-elf-and-pbis-when-good-intentions-are-misunderstood/