What to do with Hall Monitors

When I was in elementary school we began each morning walking down the halls to our classrooms listening to our peers who had been appointed hall monitors. I think I was a hall monitor in the fourth grade. Hall monitors were fellow students strategically placed in the halls of the school to maintain order in the corridors. Hall monitors repeatedly gave the same command.

“Single file line. One behind the other.”

It was a chant that began the daily ritual of school. You would hear this chant repeated over and over in various voices and tones as you proceeded to your classroom. To be a hall monitor was an honor. You had to be a good student in order to be appointed this prestigious position. Hall monitors were important because they kept everyone in line and they made sure that every student walked down the right side of the halls. They made sure that everyone conformed to the rules.

Some adults are still hall monitors.

Hall monitors love conventional methods. They like the tried, tested, and true ways of doing things. They believe that everyone should conform to the same path using the same methods. Their methods are sound. There is nothing really wrong with their strategies for living. Millions of people have conformed to the lifestyle of the hall monitors and have succeeded.

The problem with hall monitors is that they expect everyone to do the same thing.

“Single file line. One behind the other.”

Hall monitors attack you if you don’t stay in line with the rest of the crowd. They don’t like it when you walk backwards down the hall or shoulder-to-shoulder with a friend or on the left side or, God forbid, you run down the hall!

Hall monitors like to control those around them. They like to tell you what to think. They don’t like people who break the rules or change the system. They want to tell you what to do. They are threatened when someone comes along with a different way of doing things. They want to tell you what you can and cannot do. Even if your way is better, it is seen with skepticism because it is different.

Hall monitors don’t like different.

Why do I tell you this? Because sometimes if you are going to make a difference you have to be different. You will run into your share of hall monitors. They will question you. They will correct you. They may harass you. They will tell you that you are going about this the wrong way. They will think you are crazy or you’ve “lost it.”

Disregard the hall monitors.

Technology is wreaking havoc on the publishing industry today. Authors are discovering that they don’t always need traditional publishers. Digital technology allows authors to upload a book and have it printed the same day as opposed to the archaic method that traditional publishers offer using 20^th century printing presses which may take up to a year or more.

Popular author Seth Godin recently announced that he will no longer use a traditional publisher. William P. Young, the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Shack, was rejected over and over by traditional publishers. The general publishing market thought his novel was too Christian. Christian publishers thought his theology was sketchy. No one wanted to touch it. Young and two friends decided to publish it themselves and the book became a huge success.

The hall monitors say that Godin and Young are breaking the rules. Godin and Young make the hall monitors in the publishing industry really nervous.

Be aware that you will have hall monitors in your life telling you how you should conform on this journey. You don’t have to do things like they’ve always been done. You don't have to fit into the hall monitor's box.

Those who make a difference in this world typically ignore the hall monitors.