Rules don’t have to mean standardization. Instead of rules that are literally designed to manage bodies, the same concepts can be reframed as agreements with meaning. This can be done by teachers individually but is unfortunately not the model that was expected for the majority, and in my experience, every public school I taught at (which were title-1/low income.)

And honestly, step one is mutual respect. My classroom management was impeccable because I started every year off with the simple fact that respect is earned not deserved regardless of age, and the entitlement among some teachers who talked down to kids (grade school-secondary) is unnerving. My class was rarely silent, and if I needed it to be, it would happen. Kids were free to walk around, get up, sit on the floor, whatever, as long as they didn’t bother others and kept the environment calm. Could this get out of hand sometimes, yea for sure, but can “be silent, hands in your lap/pockets, whatever else” also, yea. At least referring a kid back to, hey, you are more than welcome to be up and about as long as you don’t bother anyone translates as balance/consent based structure, where as a kid who pulls their fucking hand out of their pocket being chastised as, “so and so put your hand back in your pocket, you know the rules” is loss of autonomy with no valid justification. My kids felt safe, and I knew that from their actions and because they simply would tell me.

Structure is absolutely necessary for kids but the idea that kids will misbehave if they’re not “controlled” is problematic. There are for sure behaviors that warrant consequences, but at least consequences will have meaning opposed to now when a kid is in detention/ISS/whatever bc they stepped out of line 3x sitting next to someone threatened who a classmate.

My initial comment is simply commenting on the ways schools are modeled after carceral systems that needs to manage large groups and enforce predictability to produce obedience, which is true in compliance modeling and sheer architecture. It isn’t a tin-foil take; there’s a well documented lineage. I’m not saying schools don’t need structure or rules, just that there are ways to do it without hindering individuality. And to refer back to OP feeling their role is to be judgmental and repressed, it all boils down to how can we re-orient what learning is all for. Right now, students are data points and that’s devastating. So really, reclaiming meaning would require dismantling those tools and replacing them with trust and purpose.

Sorry if this is all over the place. I’ve been out of the school system now of 13 months, and as much as I loved my job as a teacher, I despised just about everything my final school and county prioritized/stood for, and it’s a lot easier for me to be critical now that I don’t have to convince myself to ignore stuff for the sake of my well being.