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In the United States, it can be observed that the number of rules imposed on adolescents is increasing. This is the observation of “The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development”. Protecting adolescents against danger – including terrorism – and improving their educational performance are a number of the motives invoked to justify this tightening of adult authority within schools.
In certain educational establishments in Iowa, for example, students have assigned places to eat at noon; in others, they are forbidden to have bottles of water in their possession for fear that these will serve to camouflage alcohol. Backpacks are also forbidden for reasons of security. And in certain cases the desire for control of the educational authorities overflows into private life after class hours in order to make up for the presumed deficiencies in parental supervision.
In several cases, restrictive measures might be attributable to the fact that educational authorities fear judicial action on the part of parents if their children are the victims of accidents or “bad influences” on school grounds. In countries where actions can be brought against more or less everyone for practically anything, there is no reason to be surprised. However the fact that young people pay the cost of this excess is disturbing, all the more so in that as obedience to rules becomes the leitmotif of the educational institution. One can question what remains of the beautiful principles of learning founded on respect for the other and the building of a critical spirit.
In the face of arbitrariness, it shouldn’t be surprising to see students engage in passive resistance or at times openly contest what they view to be abuse of authority. In her doctoral thesis, Véronique Truchot has clearly shown that for the adolescents whom she interviewed the legitimacy of authority is the cardinal principle conferring on rules their qualities of justice and respect for the rights of the child. Mme Truchot underlines that in the eyes of students, this legitimacy decreases in relationship to equality of treatment, participation by the students in the elaboration of a behaviour code, mutual respect, and teacher coherence between words and actions. The researcher adds that if only one of these factors is absent, the legitimacy of the authority is put into question. She concludes by recalling that one of the important requirements of school is to combine rigour with the application of democratic principles and human rights.
References:
ASCD SmartBrief. « New rules promote conformity for teenagers ». Newsletter, 13.02.06.
Internet Website : http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/index.jsp/
DesMoines Register. « Iowa's youth deluged by elders' new rules ». 12.02.06
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20060212/NEWS02/602120351/1004
Truchot, Véronique (2006). «Les règles à l’école secondaire telles que les élèves se les représentent». Doctoral Thesis. Université du Québec à Montréal.
http://edutopia.info/these/index.htm
Truchot, Véronique (2001). « L'apprentissage à l'école des règles et le droit à l'éducation ». Thématique : Genève.
http://www.cifedhop.org/publications/thematique/thematique9/truchot.html
Image : from the Website de l'École de Voisey
http://xxi.ac-reims.fr/rpi-voisey/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=10
