The price of being good

Innocent students should not have to suffer with the guilty

OPINION | April 2025

Picture this: you are sitting in class, trying to complete the daily assignment when you hear voices from a group of students who have snuck out their phones to check their Snapchats when they are supposed to be working.

Even though you and the rest of the class had nothing to do with the scene in the back of the room, the teacher angrily shouts, “Everyone has to take a quiz on today’s material tomorrow because you are goofing off.”

Situations like this one have happened to me more times than I can count, and that drives me crazy.

According to Wiley Online Library, “Some interview studies have found that school-aged children preferred interventions for misbehavior to be directed at the misbehaving individual rather than the group.”

When the whole class gets punished for the actions of a few, I end up feeling like I am the one who did something wrong, even if that is not true. I am sure I am not alone.

I wish teachers would punish only those who actually stepped out of line, so the well-behaved students do not end up feeling like I do. I also think punishing the individuals responsible would put more pressure on them to change their behavior.