A 5th-grade teacher at Coupeville Elementary School has discovered an innovative way to inspire and motivate a rare model of citizenship in her students, a group of kids she said are considerably well-behaved and keenly focused on bettering themselves.

So, minus the carrot-and-stick routine, how exactly has teacher Linda Hosek achieved the difficult task of compelling good behavior and scholastic focus in her students? It’s simple, really. Hosek uses the world’s oldest goad to human excellence — start an elite yet egalitarian club, and make sure membership depends on being a plum person.

Enter the FISH club, a youthful coterie of do-gooders that provides a leading example to the whole of Mrs. Hosek’s 5th grade class. The acronym is a mouthful — “Fantastic Individuals Sharing Solutions Helping One Another,” but, hey, it works. According to Hosek, the tenets of the FISH club have drastically cut disciplinary measures meted out in her class.

“It changes the whole room into a positive,” Hosek said Monday. “Wherever they are, they have to follow the rules, without any problems. No exceptions.”

The rules of the FISH club, which Hosek first instituted 8 years ago, hinge primarily on behavior and being a good student. Students must complete their work on time, as well as follow all the rules of their classroom and Coupeville elementary in general. The rules never change, and no student has ever been turned away from the club.

One you become a FISH, by the way, you’re a FISH forever. “You’re never kicked out of the club,” Hosek said. “You’re in it for life.”

Currently, there are 18 FISH members in a class of 28 students, Hosek said, which equates to something of a moral majority. And the incentive to join is strong. FISH folk enjoy a number of small but significant privileges, such as receiving an extra recess and cutting to the front of certain lines.

There are also “tuna bucks,” a special currency that students earn and then spend at auctions, buying things like candy and small toys. While all students, members and non-member alike, can earn tuna bucks, FISH kids get the added bonus of sitting right in front of the auction table, and being the first to bid.

Also, FISH people get a party at the end of the year, which, depending on a membership vote, can either involve swimming, skating or bowling.

As with any elite club, there exists a policy for punishing behavior that transgresses the FISH rules. According to 5th-grader Genevieve Morton, anyone earning probation has his or her privileges temporarily yanked. “You don’t get to do all the special things,” Morton explained Monday.

For the most part, however, those in the FISH club exhibit the ace qualities of model students, Hosek said. Though club activities only actually take up a sliver of class time — just a few minutes a week — the incentive to doing the right thing pervades every aspect of FISHers daily activities.

“It falls through into all parts of their lives,” Hosek said.

There is always the concern, especially with kids, that inclusive clubs can be exclusive as well, causing those who don’t belong to experience feelings of dejection or resentment. Indeed, Hosek said some students at first feel put out at not being included in FISH activities. For the most part, though, kids see the benefits of joining the club and strive to better themselves.

Really, who could resist an extra recess?

“It’s not exclusive,” Hosek said about FISH club. “It’s about opening the eyes of students to the choices that are there. It rewards the good choices,” she added.

Hosek said there are always students who at first feel they can’t meet the requirements of the club, that the rules are too strenuous or strict. This is simply a negative pattern of behavior and thinking, she added, and the idea is to provide a way of breaking students out of self-doubt. “And so we change that pattern,” Hosek explained.

It works, she said, as is evidenced by the beautiful behavior and academic discipline of FISH kids. One of the club’s mottos is “join us,” and Hosek said the desire of students to do just that is apparent.

“Students have risen to the expectations,” she said.