Setting Constructive Rebellion in Motion

Amidst a pandemic and a social justice movement, school leaders have an opportunity to prepare for the aftermath of tumult

Throughout our lives, society pushes us to conform. Schools teach conformity starting in preschool, initially under the guise of safety. As students matriculate through the school system, they encounter a barrage of rules that implore them to do the right thing. Students are expected to listen quietly, raise their hand to be recognized, play nice, not talk back to the teacher, put their cell phones away and so on.

Character education and conscious discipline programs help children learn the conventions of appropriate public behavior. School rules exist as a means to protect young people from the damage that other young people might inflict. However, by the time students enter adulthood, conformity is so ingrained they have no choice but to embrace it.

During the topsy-turvy times of COVID-19, superintendents have been forced to make bold moves. Taking preemptive measures takes courage. All summer long, we faced the uncertain prospects of when schools would reopen. Then we had to disappoint a nation of parents and children by announcing many schools would remain closed through fall or perhaps the entire first semester.

Education has entered an era of business as unusual. Yet with conformity and routines out the window, the time is ripe to break a few rules that long have needed to be broken.