How Strict Is Too Strict?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses where he draws the line on strictness in schools — acknowledging that it can go too far while arguing that being too lenient is the bigger current risk.
Key Takeaways
- There is a line - Strictness can be taken too far when it becomes punitive, humiliating, or arbitrary
- But leniency is the bigger current problem - Most schools err on the side of too few consequences, not too many
- Structure with dignity is the goal - Students need firm, consistent expectations delivered with respect
Transcript
Have you heard of Britain's strictest headmistress?
Catherine Burblesingh, I was asked in the comments to a recent video to comment on her approach to education.
And I think there's a lot that is interesting that we could talk about.
And I have to say, in general, I agree with the idea of strictness to a point.
Now, do I think she takes it a little bit too far, maybe in the name of kind of personal branding?
Kind of, yes.
But here's why I think strictness is a good thing.
When you're strict about something, you don't have to worry about it nearly as much.
And a great example is cell phones.
If you are kind of sort of strict on cell phones but some people are kind of not and there are lots of exceptions then what you're going to end up with is a constant battle over cell phones but if you are extremely strict about cell phones you're hardly ever going to have to worry about them you're going to have a few people who want to test the rules and you're going to have to give them some consequences and after that you're hardly ever going to have to worry about it at all like i was shocked when I heard what the policy was in our local high school for cell phones, and it involved in-school suspension for having your phone out.
And then I realized, that's actually genius.
That is actually brilliant to say, we are just not going to mess with this.
We are going to be very serious about it so that we don't have to worry about it every single day.
Because when you're not very serious about something, you're inviting constant problems.
If you're sloppy about something, if you don't take it that seriously, If you allow people to be inconsistent, allow different teachers to have different policies, then you're constantly going to be messing with it.
So back to Catherine and her approach to school at the Michaela School.
I think this is a very well-regarded school.
The thing that I think that goes a little far in their school, I think they had the general idea right.
in that strictness allows you to not have to worry about something and allow it to be a distraction because it's handled, it's a solved problem, it's a sorted out issue.
Where it becomes a little bit of a distraction though is when there are so many things to be picky about that it starts to consume people's mental bandwidth and you can't concentrate on what you're doing because you're so focused on all the 10,000 things that have to be handled a very, very specific way.
And I think there's kind of a sweet spot of pickiness, right?
A sweet spot of strictness and the number of things to be strict about And at some point, it's just not worth it and we're just stressing people out over little stuff.
And I think there's a concern that I think is different from what I'm saying.
There's a concern that it will cause students anxiety, that it will stress them out, that it will be harmful to them in some way if we're strict about things.
I think if we're strict about the right things, things that really matter.
And if we are at the same time kind, I think you can be kind and not stress kids out.
I think you can be strict at the same time as that and still get good results.
So like I'm in favor of strictness.
I'm opposed to meanness.
I'm opposed to kind of petty cruelty.
So I think if people are doing that in the name of high expectations, I think that's kind of off.
But I do like this idea of just saying, okay, we're not gonna worry about this.
We're not gonna stress over cell phones, no cell phones during the day.
gone, out of sight, put away, or major consequences, I think that's totally appropriate and good for students to have that predictability in their lives.
Because that's really what predictability is, what strictness is, right, is predictability.
It's saying, if you do A, B is going to happen.
Here's what is going to happen.
And that helps kids make good decisions when they have a lot of conflicting pressures to do otherwise and i i think the the kind of too far side goes when like not even the adults and the kids can keep up with what we're supposed to be strict about maybe that's when we have too much like you have to you know put your fork here when you're eating and your napkin has to go on like there's stuff that does not matter but if we're strict about the things that matter i think we're going to get better results for everyone let me know what you think