I fly a lot. Which means that I am subject to TSA screening multiple times a week in multiple locations.  I’m law abiding and it is in my benefit to follow the rules.  Basically, I just want to do what is right and be left alone.  And most of the time this is exactly what happens.

However, about 10% of the time a TSA agent will tell me to do something that no other agent has had me do.  I will ask if this is a new procedure and invariably I will be chastised and told that what the agent is demanding is the way that it has always been, everywhere.  I will state that I am an experience flyer and that is not the case.  This immediately leads to suspicious looks, hostile glares and boarder line compliance.

Now consider your school.  Most of your students want to do what is right and be left alone.  They learn and follow the basic rules of school compliance.  Then they come in contact with the adult who demands a different wrinkle of student compliance.  There will be a student who will question the wrinkle. That student will be chastised and told that what the adult is demanding is the way that it has always been, everywhere.  If the student continues to make his/her case, now he/she is defiant and faces whole weight of campus discipline and punishment.

I’m is schools everyday and observe this very dynamic multiple times a month.  I’m not assigning blame.  I’m just pointing out that maybe we want to be less like TSA.

Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…

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