Violation! Walking down the left side of the hall!

I substitute occasionally in a local public middle school. Its an eye-opening experience. Those kiddies are sssooo small! If the rules and regulations followed in this middle school were carried along to high school and college we wouldn't have any discipline problems with the 15+ age groups.

First of all the kids line up in the hallways prior to the start of school and wait for the morning bell to ring. They are quiet and reserved and are looking forward to their day of school. When the bell rings (or buzzer to be exact) they walk quietly down the hallways to their lockers to get organized for the day (how can 11 or 12-yr-old kids be organized?).

Then the rules of the school kick in. First they must walk on the Right side of the hall. Believe it or not there is a yellow line (I'm surprised its not RED) down the middle of the hallway and God forbid anyone walk on or over that line. I've heard teachers (ALL of whom are in the hallways supervising) scream at a kid 20 yards away to get on the Right side of the line! Then they line up against the wall next to their classrooms. They must not enter until the teacher gives them permission. After the "go ahead" sign the teacher greets each one before they enter the class with a "Good Morning" or some other innocuous greeting to put them on notice that "Big Brother" is watching them throughout the day.

I've heard several teachers start to count down from "5" so that when they get to "1" there is complete quiet in the room. At lunch the Assistant Principal requires students to be absolutely quiet during lunch dismissal; if they are caught talking they lose the privilege of sitting wherever and with whomever they want at lunch the following week. This is a cruel and unusual punishment!

At the end of the day these youngsters have more energy then the Everready Bunny. I'm barely able to keep my eyes open and they're ready for another 6 class periods.

I was wondering if the staff at the middle schools could follow their students to high school and the high school teachers could slide to elementary school and work their way up again in the rotation. This way all the schools could improve. How come all the "Big Shots" didn't think of this? Might be a paperwork headache for the Personnel Department.