In a basketball coach’s shoes, mayhem is perceived to emerge as a result of an absence of authority and a subsequent deviation from routine via the powerful influence of peer pressure. Mr. Sylvester’s classroom burst into absolute chaos, and it was virtually entirely due to students’ backgrounds and nature, not necessarily any specific person in particular, which the school must address immediately, as one can erupt into a series of other factors that enlarge the gravity of the situation. Students look for leadership and order, and this was clearly horribly missing. Over any other, signs point to lack of a leader as the planting of a seed of crazed madness within Mr. Sylvester’s students, as any group missing authority cannot help …show more content…
Sylvester’s own students. If people are in a group, then peer pressure will almost inevitably cause them to act against their own intuition in favor of the group’s opinion. Of course, peer pressure can be both good and bad depending on scenario, and either encouraging or discouraging towards an action as well. For a basketball team, peer pressure is often and should be utilized for positive reinforcement of players to boost morale, as each player feels an obligation to the team to work their hardest towards a common goal of winning due to the common belief that their peers’ are doing the same. On the other hand, in the classroom of debate, it was but Brian that could overcome the harmful peer pressure that encouraged not behavior and teamwork to unite towards organization and what everyone in the room knew deep down was morally correct. In the words of Cythia McPherson Frantz, author of the Salem Health textbook’s portion on “Crowd behavior,” individuals in a crowd experience a “diffusion of responsibility” in situations of clear moral incorrectness. In accordance with what happened in Mr. Sylvester’s classroom, this supports the view that students felt less individually responsible for their own actions, as their peers did not act, therefore they were innocent from punishment for doing the same. This is a clear example of peer pressure kicking in and impacting students to act against what’s right, as doing so took initiative to ignore the fact that others were not doing the same. Brian did make a meek attempt to stop the students, and a commendable one at that, but peer pressure ultimately took over as his classmates booed him. His peers all were afraid to act out so as not to be alienated from the