In time, the two students confess and everyone goes back to the normal routine. In this situation, the teacher knows that everyone has benefited from the punishment. This is when the principle of benefit maximization has been used. It makes us treat people as ends in themselves, and not ways to further our own goals. It also requires us to respect our students overall freedom of choice, and give them equal opportunity to excel.
Every student has equal worth, and that isn t to be forgotten.
For example, suppose that one student makes a higher grade than another student on his math test. It isn t wrong to give the student that worked harder the better grade, because that isn t a violation of equal respect. They both are equal as students, but obviously one of the students worked harder, and he deserves the better grade. Even though they are equal as people, one of them put forth more effort. This scenario is an example of the principle of equal respect.