January 20, 2016 Artiucle

The Old Coot Knows the Rules!

By Merlin Lessler

I was surfing the High school web site the other day, to see when the pool was available for community swim. I noticed a line item for the Code of Conduct (for high school kids, not for old coots using the pool). The last time I saw it was 7 or 8 years ago, when my son was still in high school. The code back then was 8 pages long. It’s grown to 21 pages. We didn’t have written behavior rules when I went to school. There was no need.  

But now there is. If a kid throws an eraser at a teacher and gets disciplined, his parents will sue. They’ll claim, “Nobody told him (or us) that you couldn’t throw an eraser at a teacher.” Ridiculous? Not really! It’s what happens when you live in a litigious society and deal with parents who think their kid can do no wrong. The school is forced to protect itself by writing everything down and making sure the students and their parents know the rules, so no one can claim ignorance of the law.    

I remember trying the “I didn’t know” defense when I got in trouble in the third grade. It got me more than I bargained for. Instead of writing on the board, fifty times, “I will never bring a peashooter to school.” I got to write it 100 times. “You should know better without being told,” the teacher scolded. Ignorance of the law didn’t cut it then. That’s all changed now. The schools have to spell it out. Otherwise, they get sued or creamed in the media, or both.

“It’s not fair,” is another thing that got you no place in my day. The teacher was allowed to say, “ Of course it isn’t fair. It’s called real life!” Sometimes we got exactly what we deserved; sometimes we got punished for being next to the kid who actually committed the crime. That’s the way the real world is. Is there a better place (and time) to learn it than when you’re a kid in school? 

No, we didn’t need a formal code of conduct. We learned manners and correct behavior at home. If the teacher didn’t like what we did, we found out fast enough. They immediately brought it to a halt: by twisting your ear, pulling your head up by the chin or throwing an eraser at you. They meted out the punishment on the spot. If you were dumb enough to complain to your parents, you got it again at home. Even worse!  

Teachers work with a handicap today. Their job is twice as hard as it should be, as it need be. Graduates would be a lot smarter if the handcuffs came off.  When we created a disturbance in class the teacher was judge, jury and executioner.  Chew gum, and you found yourself standing in front of the room facing the class with a wad of gum stuck to the end of your nose. Pass around a picture of the teacher with fangs and devil horns and you ended up in the cloakroom surrounded by 20 snow-sopped, wool, winter coats, the smell of which was punishment in itself. The teacher had many options to “correct” your behavior: stand you in the hall or in the corner of the classroom, or send you to the dreaded principals office, to name a few. Being made to stay after school while all your friends ran out the door was the worst punishment for me. Spending the day at a desk on the girl’s side of the room was a close second.   

We learned the rules at home: we learned the consequences too. No code of conduct was needed. And if we didn’t know something, we figured it out by watching the other kids go over the line. Now, they write it all down. But, it doesn’t work. It can only be fixed by resetting the school calendar to 1950. Then, the teachers could teach and the kids would be prepared for the real world.