Ay?

When I was doing my Dip Ed last year one of the things we were told about classroom management was that we not punish the whole class for one child's transgression - you know the sort of thing: "You're all staying behind until I find out who..." - so as not to crush the young children's fragile eggshell mind and all that. I suppose. I wouldn't know. My mind was never a fragile eggshell. It was always scrambled.

So this morning at the dreaded Boot Camp, the instructor told us that when we weren't doing a specific activity, we had to keep our feet moving at all times. I guess some of us just didn't pay him no mind and not long afterwards he yelled out for us all to get down on the grass and do twenty push ups. After that you could hear a lot of hissing around our little group, "You're standing still! If he sees you we'll all be doing push ups!" and the person (ie, me) who had been mooching, started to do a little jog on the spot.

Here's my point: this is a prime example of peer pressure and mild bullying keeping everyone in line and, quite literally, on their toes. If up and coming teachers don't impart these important lessons to kids, how will they ever become the responsible adults we need to take over from us fine specimens?