Monday, July 18, 2011

Follow the Rules-Stupid

     This week I went to the bank with my daughters to get some money.  As I stood in line my daughter handed me $2.27 in change and asked me to turn it into dollar bills.  As I finally approached the bank teller I set the change on the counter and begin to organize it into easily countable order.  The young teller looked at me in alarm and said, “We can’t take change, there is a change machine over there that you can use. “  I looked at the young man following his orders and asked, “Isn’t this a bank, you can’t accept $2.27 in change?”  This dumbfounded him so a teller beside him came to his rescue and said that it is up to the teller whether they accept change or not.  To avoid making a scene and embarrassing my daughters I sent them to put the change into a machine and we finished the transaction without being dragged out by the security guards. 
     I’m all for rules, but isn’t there times we should just use our common sense?  One of our school rules was no eating in the classroom.  So my Kids who came to school without food were supposed stand outside to gain their nourishment.  Another rule my school had was that we were not allowed to have a clock hanging in the room. So we had to turn on the tv to get the time.  Last year we had a rule that before each lesson we had to write the objective on the board so the students would know what they were supposed to learn.  All of these rules were developed for various reasons, but I must admit that I didn’t follow all of these rules.  My students didn’t miss our morning learning while they ate at their desks, I kept the wall clock in the closet for when the tv clock wasn’t working, and my students seemed to learn just fine when I had them write the objectives in notebooks instead of posting them all over the wall. 
     This year will probably begin with a faculty meeting where you will get a heavy binder with all of the rules.  Do a good job and follow all of these rules to the letter.  However, once you put that binder on your shelf and begin working in the real world consider using common sense. 
(In the comments below, tell me of some of the stupid rules you have at your school.)

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