Sarte not Sarte

I found the concept of punching up and punching down interesting. When I was growing up I was always told to respect my elders. I was never told that I should offer criticism, constructive or otherwise. The response was always yes ma'am or yes sir despite what an adult asked me to do. The idea that punching up is more respectable than punching down is a concept that is understandable to me as an adult but would have been ludicrous as a child. Why don't we teach children how to offer constructive criticism? Is it because we want them to obey rather than change our opinions? I work with children and I understand how frustrating it can be when a child doesn't listen. It is so much easier to tell a child to just do as you say than to explain your reasoning behind a rule. But why should they want to follow rules if they don't understand the reason behind them? As an adult when I question or criticize an authority figure people think that I am standing up for myself and others that fall in the same "ranking" as I do. If I did this as a child my peers would just wait for me to get in trouble. There is a concept in teaching children K-12 that is called setting an example. Sometimes this can be used productively. You, the teacher, can have the children mimic your behavior. Sometimes when they are being particularly loud I will have them line up on the wall and wait for them to be quiet. While they are lined up on the wall I am on the wall across from them being silent. Soon (not always soon actually) they follow my example and become quiet as well. However, there is another way to set an example. This requires punishing one child that has been misbehaving with a harsh punishment. The other children see this and know that if they misbehave that they will be punished the same way. I don't consider punishing a child that has been misbehaving as punching down. But I can see how a child might view this punishment as being kicked while they are down. When punishing a child they tend to point out everyone else that had been doing "the same exact thing." This punching up of my discipline style is not seen as respectable. I think that age has a role to play in how punching up and punching down is received. Maybe it has to do with feeling like you have gained a small sense of recognition as an adult.