11-Year-Old Girl's Response To Class-Wide Punishment Is Pure Gold

Updated Nov. 18 2019, 2:31 p.m. ET

We've all been punished for something we didn't do. Especially during our schools days, when collective punishments were the norm. Group punishments are still pretty common to this day, remnant of our elementary school days when the entire class would be put in time out because Joey didn't put the crayons away. (I haven't forgotten about that Joseph, that's why you're still in Facebook purgatory)

To date, it still doesn't make sense. Why would you punish and entire class of people for the actions of one? If you think about it logically, they can't control the actions of the violator, and it would only earn the teacher the spite of the students, which it regularly does. It also turns the violator into a target, with mean looks and phrases like 'thanks, Joey' being thrown their way as we all sit in silence, possibly even with the lights off depending on the gravity of the violation.

If a child were to go home and complain to their parents, they would simply be met with 'yea well, that's just how things are.' A damaging statement at the very least, especially to someone who's a sponge and yearns for knowledge to answer 'why' on a daily basis, only to be met with a non-explanation of an answer from their primary source of knowledge and guidance throughout their entire lives thusfar.

Imagine if we applied the group logic punishment to everything else in life. If one waiter or waitress treated a customer rudley, would it make sense to reprimand or fire the entire staff as a result? Of course not. What if one employee was caught stealing either products or money and was prosecuted for it? Do you think that a jury of their peers would find everyone on that shift guilty of the crime? Yea...no.

But why punish everyone for the actions of a minority? That's exactly what Mason Cross' 11-year-old daughter thought when she was writing feedback to her teacher at the end of the school year.