These boys need hours of daily exercise just to come down to whatever baseline of passivity the school assumes as normal (“normal” in the sense of “normative” but also “baseline”). For boys who are naturally inclined to build respect by testing each other’s qualities (like me and my friend kicking each other), the appeal to authority is nothing but flagrant abuse. A boy who shows signs of frustration in the face of eight or more hours of incredibly dull lecturing and forced stillness is neither maladjusted nor necessarily defective: its behaviour may simply be a healthy response to an inconsiderate institution.