To continue the thoughts of Sir Robinson about schools killing creativity, I think one must look at how schools develop rules and why the system doesn’t work. The fact is that most school rules are made to address an issue for about 5% of the student body. For example, let us look at something rather innocuous — chewing gum. I can’t think of an issue more ridiculous than the issue of chewing gum; why on earth do schools have rules about something so trivial? Because some administrators, teachers, and students find the sound of someone smacking gum to be very annoying and also because no one likes to clean gum off of chairs and desks. What is that anyway? Who puts gum under a desk? I mean honestly, what sort of an activity is that? Why do they do it? I believe that most students don’t do it. We are talking about a small minority of gum smackers and stickers, but we make a rule for everybody. Why? How is the better good served by punishing all for the acts of a few? It isn’t! It is that simple. The greater good is not served. Instead of punishing all, why don’t we educate the few? Is it really that difficult? When a student is caught smacking gum or sticking it to a desk, punish them, but not for chewing the gum — punish them for disrupting the class or vandalizing school property. Teach them why it isn’t acceptable. If necessary, go old school and make the gum sticker clean the gum off all the desks in the room where he/she was caught. Isn’t that more sensible? If we look at discipline as a form of education and teaching, instead of strictly punishing people, it is clear that the school should have fewer broader rules that can be applied to many situations, than a multitude of exact rules that turn teachers and administrators into prison guards as opposed to educators. If gum chewing isn’t working for you, substitute cell phones or iPods or MP3 players and the problem remains the same. In many schools even websites are limited in an attempted to police the greater good, but have the students learned to discipline themselves? Have they understood right from wrong and what the difference is between the two? I find that the answer is no. I say an end to silly, trivial rules! Open the doors to more understanding and you will open the doors to more creativity.
