Recently in my sociology of gender class we discussed the concept of authority and the control authority figures have on social groups. A scenario we came up with was an everyday school setting with a classroom, a teacher and students. The students may outnumber the teacher by as many as 200 but day after day the students continue to conform to social norms by following the teacher’s orders in the inside classroom and outside when it comes to assignments. Even in a physical sense why does every student sit in the seats facing the teacher? There are almost always seats in the front next to the teacher’s desk for the TA so why doesn’t a student ever decide to sit there? Why don’t students ever relax by lying down in the aisles? As the Thomas Theorum states, “If we define a situation as real, they are real in their consequences.” Because we accept the notion that the teacher is the authority figure we remind ourselves of the consequences we could face if we define him or her. By doing this we continue to conform and reproduce the idea that teachers have the final say on what goes and what doesn’t. However, if we heard of a class here at Mizzou revolting and turning against a teacher and succeeding would that influence other classes to revolt against their disliked teacher? In the following link a group of students decided to challenge the consequences their school’s authority figures presented and in a way “revolted” for their idea of a common good, 2 new schools. Considering this was just a high school I have to ask myself what would happen if a large university such as Mizzou tried to “revolt” and protest a common goal?
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