Why a Consequentialist Disciplinary System Does Not Uphold The School Motto

The school motto “Character Before Career” emphasizes character’s predominant stance in education. This is a universally acknowledged claim because the subsets of “character” are, according to the school website, “love, hope, faith, wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage.” The absence of character in an education system, therefore, draws equivalence to disregarding a long tradition of virtues. Any opposition becomes a taboo.

The lack of rivalry transforms the character into an increasingly normalized concept. A primary school student could tell you to love your neighbor as yourself and to uphold faith at times of doubt. The nuance behind the term is lost. The superficial formula, namely character before career, is the sole remains of the character formation program.

The disciplinary system reflects just that. For an ordinary boarder, the ringing bell at eight signifies that he signs out to the academic building, sits in his seat, and wears a collared, buttoned-down, and tucked-in shirt, with a tie, a blazer, and khaki pants. The rest of the day is a series of checkboxes waiting to be filled.

The violation of school conduct results in infractions and detentions.

However, it is more than a unilateral exchange. Infractions and detentions, due to their burdensome and condemnatory quality, in turn, encourage students to comply with the school conduct. Thus, it seems that discipline is conducive to character. However, such a consequentialist approach contradicts the character’s fundamental meaning. Character is not a result of the ultimate action, but a moral and psychological term that serves as a means to facilitate such ends. Therefore, discipline measures effectively substitute the “character” component, serving as the ultimate driving force to the now superficial actions. A few days ago I heard one friend shouting to another: “Hurry! Or we will get an infraction!” Such is the common discourse on campus. Punishments become the motive, not the character.

Assuredly, the discipline system has its own merits. For instance, it establishes order in the original chaos, thus protecting individual rights and freedoms from outside encroachments. A holistic analysis of discipline is necessary, but it is beyond the purpose of this article.

“Character Before Career” is an extraordinary claim. It presupposes a progressive march, thus an idealized end-state of character. So a more fundamental question becomes: “Why character?” If respect drives you to sit down before the bell rings, ask yourself: “Why respect?” If responsibility drives you to sign out to the academic building, ask yourself: “Why responsibility?” A positive answer to these questions causes character formation, which is conducive to beneficiary actions. However, they do not have a universal answer, which, instead of a flaw, is its exceptional trait. Character formation is not to follow a premade, mechanistic process, as witnessed in the disciplinary system. Rather, it is a journey of exploration that begins at the very foundation: every brick and tile is necessary to achieve the ultimate good.

It is not a completely free and independent exploration, but restricted by school and society in general. In the private sector, for instance, individuals following disciplinary consequences, obedience is essential. This is because an integrated system is set up to follow a strict mechanism so that we can achieve the ultimate ends. A malfunction in one of the components might cause an entire breakdown. However, in the public sector, as in the forms of writings and speeches, students ought to challenge the current disciplinary system according to fair reason. In the case of a general, if not universal, approval to align the current disciplinary system with this particular reason, students successfully exercised their reason, but most importantly, they understood the fundamental groundwork for the entire disciplinary system, thus obeying not because of punishments, but because of a wholehearted conviction that the cause they serve is inherently good.