If youâre a student in my seventh grade class, I can guarantee you that youâll give me your best work and youâll treat me, your classmates, and yourself with respect. Otherwise, you will think the wrath of God Himself has descended on you. However, chances are youâll forget to raise your hand before you speak, fail to sign out for the bathroom, and chew gum in my class with absolute impunity. There are a few rules I really care about, and a lot of others that Iâm terrible at enforcing. Hereâs what tops my list of bad classroom rules:
1. A strict dress code.
One message I strive to get across to my kids every class period is that we are serious people involved in a serious business. I teach language arts. Learning to read and write and speak effectively is, I truly believe, a matter of life and death, especially because the majority of my students are immigrants living below the poverty line. This is their chance. We donât have a minute to waste because we have crucially important things to do every single day. It detracts a bit from that attitude if I spend 10 minutes of class ascertaining that no girl has fake nails and none of the boys are wearing joggers. And I know, I know. They have to learn to dress professionally blah blah blah. Thereâs an age at which thatâs developmentally appropriate, and 12 isnât it.
2. No food and gum in class.
If you eat breakfast at six, by nine or ten youâre pretty hungry. I know, because I pack bags of fruit and granola bars to consume throughout the day. Itâs not that hard to concentrate on class if the kid next to you is eating a banana. Itâs pretty hard to concentrate when you can feel your stomach lining devouring itself. I do, however, require that snacks be at least sort of healthy. Like, donât eat a bag of Takis dipped in Nutella. Thatâs gross. I donât want to see that.
3. No phones.
Our kids are supposed to leave them in their lockers, and that seems crazy to me. Half the time they actually serve a purpose in class. Iâd prefer it if, once theyâve written down their notes, the kids take a picture of them with their cell phones. Then I know they wonât lose it. If weâre doing group work, I want them to be able to exchange contact information quickly and effectively. And if occasionally somebodyâs phone buzzes during my class, itâs just not that big a deal. Turn it off, put it in your pocket, move on with your life. No need for a confrontation. But itâs hard to have this attitude when there are other teachers in the building who confiscate phones if they see them in a kidâs pocket ⊠regardless of whether or not the student is actually using it. This rule needs to change with the times.
4. No profanity.
If a kid curses at another kid (or, God forbid, at me), weâve got problems. If a kid ostentatiously curses in another language because theyâre trying to get away with something, Iâll bust them on that. But a mumbled âdammitâ when your freshly sharpened pencil breaks for the third time? I just canât get too riled up about that one. Weâve all been there. And while I have not yet used profanity in front of a classâwhich is a monumental accomplishmentâIâm aware that itâs only a matter of time before I slip up. As long as itâs not malicious or disrespectful, I think we can all give each other a little grace when it comes to language.
I know that kids need limits and consistency, and I probably ought to do better at enforcing some of these rules. But in the end, my relationship with my students and our goals for their learning are way more important to me than whether or not theyâre chewing gum in my class. As long as my phone-toting, skinny-jean-wearing, mouth-like-a-sailor kiddos learn how to read and write like their lives depend on it, Iâm not too worried about it.
