THERE is an old saying that a school without discipline is like a mill without water. It is a striking image. You can have the finest machinery, the most expensive grain and the most skilled craftsmen, but without the force of the water to turn the wheel, the mill is nothing more than a silent monument.
In schools, discipline is that water. It is not merely a set of restrictive rules; it is the vital force that assures the school’s self-preservation, operation and fulfillment of its sacred mission.
To be clear, schools do not just have the right to develop discipline; it has a constitutional duty to do so. By instilling discipline, schools teach it. Teachers are not just managing behavior for the next hour; they are forming character for a lifetime.
If school discipline is viewed as ending at the moment a student steps outside the school gate, the school’s mission is rendered meaningless. Character has no “off” switch. Thus, disciplinary reach must extend beyond the physical campus. If a student’s conduct undermines the values of his institution, its authority to correct it remains, from the classroom to the streets and even after graduation. In some cases, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of educational institutions to withdraw a degree or diploma already conferred when it is found that the degree was obtained through intellectual dishonesty, fraud or mistake. A credential without integrity is a lie that devalues the hard work of every other student.
The courage of true educational leadership
True educational leadership is not found in popularity. It is found in the courage to fail students who refuse to work. It is found in the spine to set boundaries for overreaching parents who prioritize their child’s comfort over their child’s growth. And it is found in the resolve to eliminate violence, correct misbehavior and catch the bully in the hallways.
The schools owe a clear, safe and rigorous path to the students who are willing to learn. When our educational system, whether intentionally or not, lowers the bar of quality in the name of “mercy,” it isn’t saving children; it is ensuring they all fall behind together. Real equity isn’t lowering the standards; it’s ensuring the path to success is clear, safe and earned.
A call for balance
and cooperation
Schools must update and fix their policies to reflect the realities of modern society, recognizing the increasing presence and influence of technology, social media and artificial intelligence among students, and the evolving capacities of students as persons. The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education need to lead the way by updating their respective outdated manuals of regulations, a task that has long been overdue.
But school policies alone are not enough.
Parents must fulfill their responsibilities. They have a social, moral and legal obligation to discipline their children in accordance with the school’s values. Schools are not enemies; they are partners in preventing the child from becoming someone who will be disciplined much more harshly by society than by his teachers.
Government regulators must empower educational institutions, faculty and administrators to instill discipline and maintain a balance in protecting students, especially minors, while also supporting their discipline and values formation. Our teachers must be safeguarded. We cannot allow the misapplication of child protection laws to be used as weapons against educators who are simply doing their duty. Without a balance of protection and discipline, we cannot effectively address the rising tide of student-on-student violence.
In public schools, teachers must not be compelled to justify and apologize before demanding excellence from students. In non-secular schools, they should not be unduly threatened with the revocation of their authority to operate for being firm in their mission and duty to discipline. Schools must turn the wheel of the mill with the force of their missions. In the end, a school may have state-of-the-art classrooms, excellent faculty and brilliant administrators, but if regulators strip it of its authority to discipline students, education will collapse.
