[gyomu]

Most western countries have somehow decided over the last couple decades that small negative actions should mostly be free of negative consequences.

You can cheat on tests, shoplift in stores, and pretty much nothing will happen to you.

When teachers can’t give failing grades to students or kick them out of their class for blatantly breaking the rules, this is what happens.

Meanwhile I took a language exam in Japan last weekend where a bunch of people got kicked out of the room - instant fail - for using their phone during the break when it was expressly disallowed (we had to put it in a sealed envelope that we couldn’t open until the exam was over, break included). Given reports I’ve heard, I suspect at least a single digit percent of test takers failed the test this session simply for breaking this rule.

From the test takers who got kicked out of the room and tried to negotiate (unsuccessfully) with the proctors, it was instantly obvious who came from cultures where the consequences of rules are carried out and who didn’t.

[PessimalDecimal]

> Most western countries have somehow decided over the last couple decades that small negative actions should mostly be free of negative consequences.

There's a general loss of decorum, and it has such immense negative impact. There's so often someone acting like an animal on public transit, which is why many avoid it entirely.

[listenallyall]

just curious - if they went through the process of providing sealable bags and (I assume) verifying the bags were in fact sealed - why not go one step further and require the sealed phones to all be placed in a bucket which could then be taken to another room to ensure no access, and also no interruptions during the exam from a rogue ring or alarm?

[Gigablah]

this would likely make the test administrators liable if any of the phones went missing.

[listenallyall]

And who's liable if I pay a testing center to properly administer an important test that will heavily impact my future, and during such test a phone rings, another phone's alarm goes off, and another phone gets a series of audio notifications? - when the center could have simply taken all the phones to a another location until the conclusion of the test.

[pishpash]

Discipline is the test.