Every few weeks, social media lights up with the same tired chorus: “Rules don’t affect learning!” According to these instant experts, school is nothing more than Math, English, and a few exams—forgetting that schools are also incubators of discipline, social skills, and future workers for industry. Only the clueless would think schools should ignore these social imperatives and focus only on academics.
Now, let’s clear up the myths. Rules don’t exist because teachers wake up one morning, bored, and decide to spite children. No—rules exist because children, left unchecked, have and will invent ways to destroy themselves, each other, and the learning environment faster than you can alert the Dean
Take #Clarks shoes, for instance. Critics claim schools are “fighting culture.”
The truth? Boys treasure Clarks more than their textbooks. Step on a pair and a brawl erupts. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the bathrooms become Clarks-polishing parlours, with students dusting shoes in battery powder—yes, battery powder—the same substance that makes the science department issue asthma warnings. But of course, “shoes don’t affect learning,” right?
The matter of #edges. The restroom transforms into a beauty salon, packed with girls skipping class to “lay” edges, using substances that belong on cracked walls rather than scalps. Critics still insist: “Hairstyles don’t affect learning.” True, but truancy certainly does.
#weave and false hair. Glued to the scalp, these need no further explanation than watching a YouTube clip of girls fighting. The way they rip and tear at each other’s synthetic hair is nothing short of murderous—it turns ordinary quarrels into gladiator matches.
#Jewelry. Let’s be honest—these are not accessories; they are weapons. Rings turn into knuckle-dusters, chains into chokeholds, bangles into blinding devices, and earrings into surgical tools of bloodletting in fights. But again— “not academic,” they say.
#Short #tunics/#skirts. Nobody pretends fabric length determines morality. But long frocks, at the very least, slow down the bus-back escapades that scandalize parents and traumatise school administrators. Call it what you will, but prevention is better than cure.
#Tight #pants. They’re not only unsightly, but downright dangerous. When an athlete gets injured, the nurse’s first job should not be to wrestle with denim like a WWE match just to reach the wound.
#Vending. No, students are not hawking mangoes and cane. They’re selling items dusted with germs or laced with substances you wouldn’t want your child near.
#Cellphones. Yes, they’re brilliant tools for learning. They’re also hotline numbers to gunmen. Schools have the real-life horror stories to prove it. If the intelligence proves that particular schools are at risk of this phenomenon, banning becomes an easy decision
Students arrive with #bags that conceal weapons beyond the capability of our metal detectors, then smuggle all kinds of contrabands with violent or harmful intents. When schools ban those, critics scream “censorship!”—forgetting that safeguarding young minds is part of education, too.
Rules may not always look academic, but they are the scaffolding that keeps schools standing. They protect students from themselves, protect teachers from chaos, and protect parents from life-changing phone calls they’d rather not receive.
So, the next time someone says, that “rules don’t affect learning,” remind them: without rules, there wouldn’t be a school left in which to learn.
Rayon Simpson is principal of Belmont Academy in Westmoreland. He received national recognition as the 2023 Principal of the Year.
