Schools have too many rules

Bill Cosby once said, “Civilization had too many rules for me, so I did my best to rewrite them.” I say Amen to that.

All children must learn the same lessons in the same order. Students must dress a certain way. Children must eat at the same time. Children must play at the same time. Children are graded the same. Children must go from point A to B to C.

While the rules are made for the good of all children like no tolerance rules for instance, they are also made for the detriment of the individual. To top it off, schools have too many conflicting rules that leave children confused. Get in line. Stay in line. Sit and Wait. No talking in the halls. No talking in the classroom. No talking in the halls. No talking out of turn. No running. Move quickly. Slow down. Learn in this order. Learn faster. Learn slower.

When my son was in the 3rd grade in public school, there were kids that harassed him for no other reason that his first name was also the name of the school. He was smacked in the head on a daily basis and mocked. He took this abuse quietly because he was convinced that speaking up for himself would land him in trouble as he was always caught and his torturers never were. He thought that by defending himself there would be a mark on his "permanent record". So in addition to all the written rules, there were also the unwritten ones such as if the person picking the fight knows how to not be caught and the person defending himself always is punished.

There were just too many rules, and so now, we have rewritten our own. The rule now is to simply LEARN.