The Importance of Rules in the Classroom
I am a student who enjoys rules, inside the classroom as well as in life, comparing the rules of the classroom to the rules of the society in which we all live. Without rules, it would be impossible to know success, no way to measure ourselves based on the expectations of an instructor, leading to an unsatisfying school experience. This is not a call for a classroom dictatorship; on the contrary, it is the instructor who can give and enforce rules while maintaining a welcoming environment, who has truly mastered the art the class room. I appreciate an instructor’s ability to lay down rules and then enforce the rules exactly how promised; providing a classroom where there is no question about the consequences of certain actions and fairness for all students regarding those consequences.
Several semesters ago I had a teacher for an American history class who I deeply respected for his authority within his classroom. It was an early-morning class that met twice a week, and many of the students mentioned working full time in their class introductions. I, too, was working full time and at the beginning of class was sitting at my desk nursing my large cup of coffee to try to keep myself awake. I dreaded sleeping through my alarm, not having time to swing by Kinko’s to print my papers before class, or—worse—losing all motivation to get myself out of bed before 6:30 in the morning. I was sure that many students had the same early-morning class anxieties.
After our introductions, the professor launched into a short lecture on the classroom syllabus, and what he called “behavior expectations.” Every teacher begins class this way, and there was really nothing exceptional: no cell phones ringing, no tardiness, no talking during class to disturb those around you. When he finished he stopped and asked if anyone had any questions, there were none. He ended the lecture with a firm reminder that any broken rules would result from removal from the class room, and if a student had more than one infraction he would drop the student from his roster: seemingly idle threats from yet another professor who wants to scare students into academic submission.
Many students have experienced classrooms where instructors lay down the rules at the beginning of a term only to make “exceptions” for students, with little to no instances where the rules are actually enforced. I have witnessed instructors taking papers from students, hand written, after telling the class that no such exceptions would be made; instructors who continue on with their lectures while a student answers their phone in class, and much worse. Those students who follow the rules feel cheated, and those who choose not to follow the rules suffer no consequences for doing so. The instructor is hurting both groups of students by allowing exceptions to take place without warrant, leading to an environment where neither group takes the instructor seriously. Nothing is learned either of the subject, or of the sacrifices students must make in order to be successful in both school and in life. The other extreme is the instructor who holds the rules in such high regard that the student learns only how to maintain a satisfactory grade in a class where it is only the rules that are taught, and very little of the subject matter.
A few weeks into the semester a student entered the class nearly twenty minutes after the class had started. The professor was mid-sentence when the student sat down in his chair, and he calmly finished it as the student took out his cell phone and began punching keys, presumably to set the volume to silent. The instructor asked the student to pack up his things and leave, and he would be welcome into the class during the next session, at the time that class began—8:00 a.m. The student began to argue, but before he could get out his defense, the teacher just reiterated the importance of not being tardy for class—he was there on time for each class, and the student could do him the same courtesy. There was no yelling and though the student was visibly upset, the manner in which the transaction was handled was not derogatory or condescending, and it was obvious that the instructor did not intend it to be. It was hard to tell immediately if the student would return the next class period, but he did, on time, without his cell phone. In fact, everyone who witnessed the transaction realized that the rules were enforced, and I even found myself leaving ten minutes early every morning after that, just to make sure I was on time.
That was the only time during the semester he removed someone from the classroom, and it was the only time he had to. The professor did his best, the whole semester, to maintain a classroom where questions were welcome, comments were heard, and encouraged. Despite the harshness of his rules, his classroom was one where the students felt welcome, and it was a positive experience for all involved, even the student who had to leave class for tardiness. We did not just learn about history, we learned the importance of being professional, and punctual, in the classroom.
It is natural, especially in school, for people to test the rules for slack, or find loopholes in expectations. There will always be instructors who do not want to limit the freedoms of their students with rules and guidelines or perhaps they are just afraid to do so for personal reasons. This methodology, however, does not educate students in the importance of rules and guidelines in real-world settings. An instructor who can allow students the freedom to be themselves, but also maintain standards for everyone in the classroom is one who is truly rare in the world of education.
