"Sorry Sir" Syndrome

There is a new syndrome on the block. No matter which institute the students come from, they are affected by this uniformly. It starts in the undergraduate days, and continues in the postgraduate days. "Why did you not attend the teaching session yesterday?" "Sorry Sir." "Why did you run away from your duty in the emergency ward?" "Sorry Sir." "Why did you enter the operation theater without changing into OT clothes?" "Sorry Sir." "Why did you go out of the OT wearing OT slippers? Do you not know that it carries dirt and microorganisms into the OT and contaminates it, increasing our surgical infection rate?" "Sorry Sir." "Saying sorry does not solve the problem. What do you propose to do about it?" "Sorry Sir." There is a great book by Thomas A Harris - 'I am OK, you are OK'. It is on Transactional Analysis. It is a practical guide to using Transactional Analysis as a method for solving problems. As described by that author, I wish my students would respond to my adult questions with adult answers, so that the adult-adult interaction would produce results satisfying to both parties. Unfortunately no matter how much I try, they adopt the parent-child interaction. Then everything I ask is just a 'lecture' on bad behavior, to be suffered silently until it gets over, and the only response is "Sorry Sir." In fact it is I who is sorry, not them, that they suffer from this syndrome.