We live in a world full of exceptions. Exceptions allow those who set the rules in motion to be lenient and biased in enforcement. This struggle between laws for all and punishment for some creates the double standards that exist all around us. As unjust as it is on a worldwide scale, we can only truly observe double standards in our own community; in this case, Rangeview.
The first thing anyone has to do before understanding double standards is to define what one actually is. A quick Google search will tell you ‘a rule or principle that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups.’ Alright, great we understand what a double standard is: a selective rule that only ever seems to apply in opportune moments.
In Rangeview we can observe these double standards in every corner of the building. A teacher says you can’t eat in class but whips out that salad because he/she was grading during lunch. Students want all teachers to listen to their opinion but refuse to hear anyone else out about any issue. Where can anyone even begin to list the double standards in the form of drama between friends or even just students in general. In some way or another, we are all guilty of a “Do what I say as not as I do” mentality.
Our first examples refers to the unfairness of rules that seem to only apply to students and not staff members. These double standards are usually few and far between but one is noticeable almost every single day: hats indoors. It’s near impossible to go a day in Rangeview without hearing an administrator telling a student to take their hat off but at the same time a lot of monitors walk around with the RR ballcaps on. It’s understood that the hat rule is there for a multitude of reasons but why do these reasons not apply to the adults in the building? That is exactly the definition of a double standard. This rule does not apply to everyone in the building; they get to wear their hats around for no notable or even acceptable reason. If the purpose was to identify them as campus security or even just an authority figure, they could do a multitude of other things that wouldn’t break the rules that students have to follow.
“It makes sense that we can’t wear hats in the building,” says Rangeview senior Jacob Johnson, “The rule should apply to everyone though.”
Sure we can all be upset about something comparatively small, but just remember none of us students are innocent. Most have been in a situation where a fellow student has made it obvious that they do not want to take anyone’s attitude on a given day but as soon as a teacher also makes it known they aren’t going to take that same student’s negative energy, things seem to blow out of proportion. The world, as much as we want it to, does not revolve around any of us. Next time you seem to have any sort of “law” for how you treat people or how you expect people to treat you, it might be in your best interest to take a moment and think of how everyone else feels about the same issues, especially those that are in charge of your education.
“I do my best to be polite and respectful to students in my classes,” says Rangeview teacher Taylor Peterson. “I expect that they treat me with the same level of professionalism and respect that I show to them.”
Sadly we can’t solve all the double standards Rangeview has — sometimes the rules are things we can’t change or aren’t worth the trouble of fighting against something trivial like hats. What we can do though? We can work hard to make sure we treat everyone with an equal amount of fairness. It is cliche to mention but the golden rule is and always will be ‘treat others the way you wish to be treated’. Live by that statement and you will be doing your part.
