Rules Made To Be Broken

What do Saddam Hussein and your local school have in common?



It will be interesting to see what transpires over the next several weeks in regard to the crisis in Iraq and President Bush�s insistence that Saddam Hussein follow the rules set by the UN. I have my doubts that the United Nations will offer much in way of consequences for his actions. We are living in a world that has mastered making rules, but fails miserably at dealing with those who break them.

The school where I work has developed some rather exotic rules that well-intentioned people spent hours creating. We have rules that do not allow chewing gum, clothes with a logo, shirts without collars, running in the hallway, rubber bands, cussing, fighting, or being late for class. The consequences created for breaking these rules are equally marvelous with things such as Saturday school, Friday night school, after-school detention, conferences, and in-house suspensions to name a few. You can almost hear lips quiver. But those who break the rules in our school have no fear of the consequences because they have no impact. And now it seems the world is watching.

Saddam has mastered the system as evidenced by thumbing his nose at weapons inspectors and United Nation tough talk. He has continued to break the rules knowing there will be no consequences of significance. I have no doubt that he took his lessons from the United States.

My heart goes out to the President and his staff who are trying to actually enforce the rules. He can now join the thousands of schoolteachers and administrators, juvenile court workers, police officers, probation officers and more whose duty it is to enforce the rules and punish those who break them. Welcome to the world of pacifistic, pandering, political correctness. They want you to fight this war with feathers.

The rules and laws that have gone into effect in America- whether in state and federal government or local school systems- are absolutely powerless, unless there are clear, quick, effective consequences for their abuse. Let me repeat: the rules are powerless unless they are enforced. Somewhere along the way we seem to have convinced ourselves that the rules in and of themselves are enough to maintain civility. My school has an ever-thickening manual of school rules and discipline policies. Parents and students are asked to read it, sign it and obey it. We talk to them from day one about our rules; they have memorized most and can rattle off our dress code policy as if it were the Gettysburg Address. They know the rules. So does Saddam.

The greatest injustice happening right now in America�s schools is that students are not made to fear breaking rules. I have given up hope that corporal punishment will return to public schools, but I dream of a day when students who break rules find their actions dealt with swiftly and in a way they will remember so that they actually can learn from their mistakes. We are churning out a generation of students who will not follow rules because they have no moral compass to steer them correctly. And we are producing many, many more who will, for the rest of their lives, mock right from wrong.

Recently I began an after-school program that has court ordered students involved in a twelve session high adventure program that is designed to help students gain confidence and work together. These are students who were made by a judge to attend this class. I learned very quickly (in the first ten minutes of session one) that being court ordered to do something meant very little to these students. They had no fear of the consequences and my approach to hold that up to them fell flat immediately. It scares me to think that our system has become so anemic that young people aren't even intimidated by the courts.

Another shock came recently when a student diagnosed with a form of autism assaulted a thirty-year veteran teacher. The student attacked the teacher (hitting, kicking) forcing the teacher to subdue them in order to protect himself and other students. The parents of the child have now filed charges against the school for abuse. And we are forced by law to take this child back. Maybe its time for schools to disregard the rules like everyone else.

It is no surprise that many Democrats are taking the pacifist stance in dealing with Iraq. A President determined to enforce the rules has been mocked as an inept, gun-slinging cowboy while the so-called intellectuals chant �Inspection � Not War!� How quickly things have changed since the events of 9-11-01 with regard to a unified resolve to end terrorism. It seems the so-called pacifists would rather create more rules and let the President fight windmills.