It’s the little things that matter most, right?  At least that’s what we’ve been told in song after song.  There are countless movies and TV programs demonstrating the all-important “little thing” as the make-it-or-break-it component of our happiness, even survival.  Few things in elementary school prove this like the simple, little joy of getting a sticker on an assignment.

“Hey Mom! I got a Gold STAR!”

For decades, perhaps longer, kids have been getting stickers on their assignment – as a reassuring gesture and encouragement.  It makes sense, though, that the sticker could come to mean so much to a young student.   An “A+” in Kindergarten is often much more difficult to grasp than the poignant and pointy Gold Star.   Stickers provide an emotional attachment to the grade.   Two gold stars could send a kid on top of the world.

It should be noted that gold stars haven’t been the only stickers on the scene.   There were a variety of other colored stars put to use on homework and tests, such as silver, red, blue and green, just to name a few.   Other early childhood accomplishment stickers have included the ubiquitous smiley face, most often smiling through in all his yellow glory, though occasionally found in the other standard colors in the ROYGBIV, a.k.a. the colors of the rainbow, as well as a few other high-falutin’ colors.

With advancements in sticker-producing technology, a wider range of stickers were available as the decades wore on.   During the 1970s, kids old enough to read were running home with “Super Duper!” and “Fantastic!”  The occasional piece of fruit, like apples, strawberries, grapes or even bananas could sometimes be found atop an assignment.  For teachers looking to make a little variety, gender-specific (and somewhat stereotypically so) stickers were chosen, from butterflies and flowers for girls to footballs and cars for boys.

While brand-styled stickers were available with now-classic characters, like Charlie Brown and Snoopy from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts as well as Mickey Mouse and his friends from Disney, it really took the Star Wars merchandising explosion of the late 1970s and early 1980s to bring such up-to-the-moment and brand-specific graphics to the schoolhouse sticker realm.  Soon, stickers for Saturday-morning cartoon character started showing up, everything from He-Man and She-Ra to Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, WWF and G.I. Joe, all telling students that they were “Amazing!” and did a “Great Job!”

Scratch-n-Sniff stickers also became very popular during this time.  Treated with a special coating, when scratched, these stickers would release an odor – usually related to the picture on the sticker.  While it was always good to get a form of fruits such as strawberry, watermelon and grape – all accompanied with classic sniff-a-licious taglines like “Berry Good!” “Melon Power!” and “Grape Job!” – the occasional oddity would show up on homework.  Scents like onion, leather and skunk have left many a student confused and bewildered.  Holiday scents, such as turkey, stuffing, apple and pumpkin pie, and of course, peppermint were standards in scratch-n-sniff stickery.

Though they are such little things, stickers came to mean a lot to kids.  Now more likely to get an “invoice paid stamp” than a sticker reminding them how wonderful they are, the kids of yesteryear are left with fond memories of gold stars, congratulatory fruit, their favorite cartoon heroes and scented sentiments, opening up the possibility that it might really have been the little things that got us through, all along.