spiritual form fallacy

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to foster authentic spiritual growth in an academic environment. Academe requires measurable outcomes that can be recorded and reported. Outcomes require standards by which to measure, and standards are usually behavioral. The tricky part is that spiritual growth does manifest itself in behavioral changes, but observable behavioral changes don't necessarily indicate spiritual growth, especially behaviors that are required or forbidden by those who use them to measure. The end is that the exhibited behavior ceases to be the instrument by which spiritual growth is measured, but rather we begin to measure spiritual growth by the students' adherence to the behavioral standards.
This does not happen entirely subconsciously. When someone questions standards that are no longer backed by conviction, they are justified by integrity. Whether or not you agree with the rule, you agreed to follow it. Now spiritual growth is measured not by observable behavior, but by willingness to submit to a behavioral standard that has nothing to do with spiritual growth. Maybe on the SAT it would appear something like this: Only people who like to wear brown shoes are good people. Betsy doesn't like to wear brown shoes, but does anyway. Is Betsy a good person?
Of course one can only observe whether Betsy wore the shoes, not whether she liked it. Maybe Betsy loves to wear brown shoes, but has none.
The ramifications of this are deep. Everyone gets confused. The mentors begin to confuse mistakes for rebellion and lack of respect on the part of growing, sincere students, and respond to them as such. It is among the most sincere students that this has the most negative affect. These students really do respect and admire their mentors as spiritually mature people whose guidance and correction they take seriously. If they are told they have a rebellious attitude, it is more than discouraging.
The students grow more confused because they see that it is not what they did that was wrong, but the fact that they did it.
So integrity is the issue? Well integrity would certainly be one of the results of spiritual growth, but if integrity is defined by submission to the law, then it can't be an instrument by which to measure spiritual growth, which was to be measured by the law set in place to enforce behavior that is used to measure spiritual growth. Ridiculous sentence? Yes, intentionally. It is long, complicated and confusing and probably grammatically incorrect. No one knows where it starts and where it stops. That is the problem with this measurement thinking.
None of this is to say necessarily that rules should be abandoned, or that one shouldn't abide by rules with which they do not agree. There is nothing wrong with enforcing rules as rules, and holding accountable those who break them. It is only to say that we can't use a thermometer to find out how much we weigh. Heat may cause us to sweat and by sweating, we may lose weight, but the temperature cannot measure our weight loss. We've got to be who we want them to become and strive to become who we want to be. We've got to trust the Spirit to perform the spiritual.