Before the Internet, computers, television, and even movies, there were photos. Prior to the development of color film, life was reproduced only in the black and white ink of a photograph. Wrinkled and obsolete as such an outlook might be, some people still see the world through only two lenses: right and wrong, reward and punishment, black and white.
Consider, as a well-known example, the electronic device policy. According to that paper we all probably signed without reading, electronic devices used on campus between 7:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. will be confiscated by an administrator and taken to the principal’s office.
I completely understand the purpose of the policy. Teachers cannot have cell phones sounding off every five minutes with the latest Lady GaGa ring tones. It certainly does not support integrity to enable students to take a picture of a difficult test and text it to their friends (yes, people can do that now.) But in certain cases, the policy should be relaxed.
For instance, last year I was feeling ill (and I mean doctor-sick, not get-out-of-a-math-test-sick). I tried to use the office phone to call home, and was told that all the phones in the building were out of order. I asked permission to use my cell phone to make the call. Request denied: that would be a violation of the electronic device policy. I was told to lie down in the un-nursed clinic while they fixed the office phone. Yes, upholding the electronic device policy took precedence over my food poisoning issue. That would have to wait.
An efficient set of rules would clearly state expectations, and the punishments for not meeting them, with equal treatment for each and every law-breaker. But life is comprised of many, many shades of grey, and the same rules just might not fit every situation. When there is no room for interpretation between the lines, such rules end up hurting the people they aim to guide.
In the United States, the Legislative Branch enacts legislation and the Executive Branch enforces it. However, the Judicial Branch has the sole power to interpret the laws, determine their constitutionality, and apply them to individual cases. The key words here are interpret and apply, two words that together bring the laws from the principles an authority establishes to govern its people to a distinct judgment.
Administrators should not blindly execute rules in black and white just because they are printed that way. Each faculty member needs to take enforcement of his or her own hands, and effectively sit as the “judge” for the circumstances they face. By considering the offender, the evidence, and specific situation into account, teachers command the authority to separate the deliberate delinquents from the students in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I do not know what would have happened had I attempted to discreetly text an SOS to my mother that day in the office – I did not try. I hope, however, that the clerical staff would have turned blind eye to this innocent infraction and focused on the greater image, presently freely in brilliant full color.
