Running in school corridors appears almost comically minor when compared with fighting, stealing or truancy.
Yet many schools prohibited it firmly.
There were practical reasons.
The Risk of Collision
Busy corridors contained pupils moving between lessons, teachers carrying books and doors opening unexpectedly.
Staircases created additional hazards.
Running therefore presented a genuine possibility of accident.
The rule was not merely concerned with neatness or obedience.
The 1964 Incident
A grammar-school boy aged twelve was caught running in a corridor by the deputy head in 1964.
His explanation reveals the sometimes contradictory pressures of school life.
He was late for a lesson.
He feared that arriving late would bring punishment from his classroom teacher.
He therefore ran in an attempt to arrive more quickly.
Unfortunately, he turned a corner and encountered the deputy head.
He was taken to the deputy’s office and punished.
One Rule Against Another
The case is almost a miniature study of institutional discipline.
The boy knew that lateness was wrong.
He also knew that running was wrong.
In attempting to avoid the consequences of the first offence, he committed the second.
The Pupil’s Verdict
He stated that he was never punished again for running and regarded the punishment as effective.
This is a good example of specific deterrence.
It does not tell us whether his general behaviour improved.
It tells us that he remembered the rule concerning corridors.
Safety and Order
Corridor rules also contributed to the general atmosphere of a school.
Hundreds of pupils changing lessons simultaneously could produce considerable disorder.
Walking, keeping to expected routes and arriving promptly were therefore part of the machinery by which a large school operated.
The corridor may have been between lessons.
It was not outside school discipline.
