#oneaday Day 650: Rules are Made to be Kept

“Rules are made to be broken.” I want to go back in time, find whoever coined that phrase and punch them in the testicles. The reason for this is simple: far too many people out there seem to live by these words, and allow subsequent generations to do so also.

This was particularly frustrating when I worked as a teacher. As a teacher, you’re expected to uphold the behavioural standards of the school and punish miscreants according to the school’s policies. In most cases, because teachers aren’t able to dish out any form of physical or psychological punishment, this means Giving Them A Detention. Fair enough. If you gave a child a detention and they turned up to it, this would be an effective punishment. However, unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, they will not turn up at all.

Let’s take a couple of examples. In the first school I taught at, there was this objectionable little scrote in one class who constantly played up, threatened other children, swore, gave attitude to adults and was generally someone you really didn’t want to have around but had to. Attempt to punish him for his relentlessly obnoxious behaviour and he’d simply come back with the response “my Mum says I don’t have to do detentions, so I’m not going to.” And indeed, she didn’t think he should have to do detentions, and as such he didn’t.

Another example comes during my brief stint as a primary school teacher. One of the brightest kids in the class was, unfortunately, a little arsehole behaviourally. Much like the previous example, he’d swear, shout, get angry at adults, punch and kick his peers and occasionally storm out if he felt like it. He’d also goad the real problem child in that class into kicking off and causing trouble. When I confronted his parents with his behaviour one parent’s evening, they told me that they’d taught him to retaliate if he ever thought he was being treated unfairly. You really can’t win in that situation.

It sometimes surprises me how little regard people have for rules and even laws in reality. Obviously people don’t go around murdering each other or anything, but small thing like littering, smoking and doing things that signs politely ask you not to do — all of those make a regular appearance.

It was particularly apparent during our trip to Legoland this weekend. In some of the queues for the rides were small Duplo stations where bored kids could build things. On every one was a sign saying “please do not build tall towers” — presumably so they didn’t collapse, spray Duplo everywhere and make a mess. And yet in every instance, what was the first thing built by kids? You guessed it.

It wasn’t just the kids, though — the adults were just as much to blame, whether it was not correcting their children when they did something they’d been politely asked not to, or smoking outside the designated smoking area for no apparent reason other than to be slightly (but not massively) rebellious.

Accusations of this country being a “nanny state” are often bandied around, and often with some degree of accuracy. But just because we feel that we’re being regulated too tightly on some things doesn’t really mean that we should just only follow the rules that we think we should. I’m not talking about blindly following instructions and being a mindless robot here — I’m talking about following rules that just make common sense or are based on courtesy. If you’ve been asked not to smoke in the nice family-friendly theme park, smoke in your little smoking area — at least you’ve been provided with one. If your children are doing something they shouldn’t, inform them that they are doing something they shouldn’t — and don’t get pissy with someone else if they ask you to keep your children under control.

Also, get off my lawn, you pesky kids don’t even know you’re born, etc. etc.