Just a couple of comments on the tangent. I'm going to have to take some time to go back and read through the last several posts more carefully, because I'm frankly not too sure what happened.
On respect. First, I believe that there is an important distinction between respecting someone and treating someone with respect (or respectfully). Whether or not I respect you comes from you. It's something that stems from your character and your behavior and is unique to you. In a room full of people, I can hold each person in greater or lesser esteem based upon my personal interactions with them.
How I treat people and how I react to rules stems entirely from me. I may not like a rule, but it's up to me to respect it. I may not like you or respect you, but it's entirely up to me whether or not I treat you with respect. I may not like a person, but if he and I have an appointment and I am late, I am being disrespectful whether or not I respect him.
This isn't an American usage of the word. I'm pretty sure that this is common to any English speaking country.
So, in a class where someone breaks a rule and is expected to do pushups, I have no problem with it. It falls into the respect for the rules, respect for the culture of the school and respect for (in some cases) the time and attention of the other students in the class.
We have a rule at our school. If you show up late for class, you do ropes: one rep per minute you're late.
In the school, however, respect for each other is much more organic and individual. I respect my coach because he is knowledgeable, skilled and an all around decent guy, for example.