Silly rules made by schools
You must oil your hair and tie them in chotis!
Keep your hands behind your back. Don’t look sideways!
Have you been subjected to such rules? Silly ones that schools make?
So coming back to rules, I wonder at times why we as schools make such rules.
If one child who has carried long hair has turned out to be non-disciplined ALL children in the future are subject to a short hair cut. Doesn’t that make our institutions rule-obsessed space that has maximum rules but minimum compliance?
Talk of mobiles, most teenagers today carry mobiles and their parents want them to do so out of concern for safety. But schools usually have a NO Mobile policy. This makes space for the whole chor-police game where the teachers who know that students are carrying mobiles turn a blind eye to them because they can’t frisk them every day.
But one fine day, the students will be “caught” and a long diatribe will ensue. But how about creating a simple solution to it? How about asking students to leave mobiles out to the classroom rather than leave it home which we know is never going to happen? At GGIS, We are working with our student body to create a more conducive mobiles policy.
Will such policies ensure that there is never an offender?
Of course NOT. But there will surely be fewer. Also, there will be a lot more peer pressure to fall in line. And teachers will have more time to teach rather than police.
Also, at times rules are made as a substitute for trust and faith. But try removing the rules and trusting them and the problem might just vanish. Like in this particular school a lot of older students were found munching on snacks during class stealthily. The school decided to make it open and said you can eat anytime you want without having to take seek any permission. Suddenly children started eating only during the lunch break. You see it wasn’t cool to munch in the class anymore!
To sum up, rules are necessary to function and there is no substitute for discipline. But in this new age, only cooperative and self-adapted discipline seems to work.
What do you have to say about this? Have you experienced such rules?
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