Structuring Children

"School rules govern and regulate children's bodily, linguistic, and emotional expression" (pg. 311). I couldn't agree with this statement more, and to be frank, I think it sucks. In my student teaching placement, I am finding that middle schoolers are forced to act and behave a certain way and it is all very authoritarian. For example, when they're in the lunch line it must be silent and they must be reading the book they are forced to carry with them. No noise, in the hallway or the classroom, is permitted. I think this practice goes against everything we know about the way children develop and need to act socially. Teachers have a tendency to want to subdue every physical or verbal emotion that children of this age need to express and that is a bad habit to get into. Middle schoolers need to move, talk, and interact amongst their peers and keeping them in a military-like, highly structured environment is simply bad for their development. Why do we feel a need to project adult and corporate behavior on children? Why not let them be kids while they still can be? I think, as future teachers, we all need to remember what we were like at this age and cut kids a little slack. If we do, we will be more likely to form sincere bonds with our students and have a better chance of engaging them with the academic stuff we'd like them to be interested in.