“You’re a terrible teacher. No one cares about school.”
Well, that’s definitely something a teacher never wants to hear during his or her career.
Those words have been uttered by students before, believe it or not. This is a troubling epidemic that must be acknowledged and handled carefully.
As kids, we were always taught to respect your elders and people in authority. In the school setting, that includes all teachers and administrators. However, I’ve noticed that some students seem to have never heard anything like this, and disrespect their teachers.
Teachers have a simple job: to teach students material and make sure they understand it. They don’t deserve to deal with rude students that try to make their lives difficult. As students, we don’t deserve to learn in a negative environment. Teachers don’t pick on students just out of boredom or bias. They single people out to discipline them and make sure the learning environment stays focused.
Students who disrespect teachers are, to put it mildly, extremely inconsiderate. This is not only to the teacher, but to other peers in the classroom. Students are at school to learn, not to hear their fellow classmate(s) talk smack to the teacher. As a junior, it’s crucial that I am focused and learning as much information as I can from the teacher to pass the classes and tests, but I definitely don’t need teachers dealing with disrespectful kids in the middle of lecture. It takes away all the attention from learning.
Phones are a rather big issue in this case. There’s been a consistent problem with students constantly on their phones during class and not paying attention to the teacher lecturing. This is a sign of disrespect in the fact that the students totally disregard what a teacher has to say, as if they don’t care at all. The worst part of this is if a student refuses to hand over the phone when specifically requested by a teacher. In one of my classes, my teacher told one girl, who had been on her phone the entire class time, to put it on his desk. The girl simply smirked and put it away in her pocket, only to have it out again a few minutes later. This attitude is that of one who doesn’t think a teacher should ever tell her what to do. These are people who typically think they can do anything, and no adult has the right to tell them otherwise.
In another class, which was combined AP and honors, there was one notorious student who would always talk back to the teacher in class with no shame. Whenever the teacher called on her to read a passage, she would look at the teacher with scorn and refused to say anything, or would say “Mister, are you serious?”
Don’t get me wrong- I’m not singling out my own school by using my anecdotes. This is happening everywhere, not just in one or a few schools. There are students’ videos on YouTube of their fellow classmates bullying teachers. On YouTube, I searched “student bullies teacher” and I watched a video titled “Female Teacher Bullied & Harassed by Entire Class in Chicago.” It is an absolute disgrace and horror to see students treat a teacher this way by making horribly rude comments. I noticed that at one point, a student held up a desk over the teacher’s head. Additionally, the person recording the video made no attempt to help or console the teacher, and even laughed at students’ antics.
The sad thing is that some teachers just give up trying to change the students. It is so much effort put into trying to help the students, who just don’t see that, and even if they do, the teacher’s efforts are usually disregarded. The students think that they’re the ones who are right. Eventually, teachers have used so much wasted effort that it seems futile to try any more.
Luckily, a majority of students that I’m acquainted with are well-mannered and respectful in class, but there’s a special few who just aren’t.
Calling a student’s home to report to their parents only goes so far. Teachers should, in the face of disrespect, keep their cool and remain respectful. Teachers also should not just ignore the contempt from students; they should try to strictly combat it. Being too lenient doesn’t work and will only make things worse as students don’t see a limit to their actions. Students like these must be disciplined.
The classroom should not be a stage for a power struggle between student and teacher. What happened to respect? We need to speak up and bring it back. Teachers, or anyone for that matter, don’t deserve rude treatment like this.
5 Comments
i think she is completely right
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Well it is true that teachers are being disrespected it is important to remember that respect is a two way street. For example at my school I have seen similar issues that you talk about, but I also see teachers respond with just as immature responses as the students. The teacher is supposed to be mature and should be able to ignore disrespect and kill it with kindness. For example with the student who refused to read the passage one of the best ways to encourage her in a respectful way would be to reward those who do read and keep the class interactive in more ways then just reading. It is also important to remember that just because someone is an elder doesn’t necessarily immediately make them mature or wise. Teachers have routinely shown biase both for and against me, in many extreme ways. Just because someone is our elder they shouldn’t immediately get respect just as students don’t immediately get it. You have to earn it. If a teacher wants respect from his or her students then they hav to earn it, just as we students have to.
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How wrong you are Adam Locke. A child should not be rewarded for doing what is expected of them in a school setting. Students are in school to learn, not be placated to. As far as a teacher earning respect, I think they earned respect when they went through their teacher education program, were screened and background checked, and subsequently hired by the principal/superintendent/board. You act as if a kid in school, whom is lacking life experience and cognitive development should rule the situation. Hopefully, when you get older and become a parent, you will have a greater understanding of these facts.
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As an educator, I always believed that negative behavior in the classroom kills the learning environment. Students lose out the most, including the disrupter. As the teacher, it doesn’t hurt my feelings personally. I’m not the one who needs to know the material for a test, to get into college, or to graduate. But I do feel badly for the students who are there to learn or at least trying to just get through the school day and they don’t need to sit through the immature nonsense. Even as adults we’ve been there. The rude customer in a restaurant or the irate person who is demeaning the cashiers at the checkout lanes. If we are to have an honest discussion, as an educator I should be allowed to suggest alternatives to disruptive students and their parents.The school setting is not a fit for every personality type out there. It just isn’t. We need to stop forcing square pegs into round holes because it’s making everybody miserable, particularly those who are square pegs. I actually believe that disruptive students could better use their time elsewhere. Their behavior is indicative that they aren’t actually getting anything out of being at school. This is where parents need to man up and pull their child out of traditional schooling. Stop forcing their child to sit inside a classroom and expect the school to deal with it or to figure it out. Schools should maximize their resources on students who are a fit and excelling, not on those who learn best outside of school. It is the job of the parent to seek out alternative education rather than use public education as childcare.
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I agree and disagree. Human beings are interesting things that work in different ways. The brain and psychology of it all are very interesting. The way a child grows up can affect how they act at school. It is partly the parent’s fault for not teaching their child common respect, however, there will always be the kids that won’t listen. While yes, school is a learning environment, kids didn’t choose is themselves. They didn’t choose to learn, they are forced to. Yes, I do feel bad for the teachers having to go through the bad and rude students but it’s part of the job they signed up for, they should know that they were once kids. Kids are ignorant and especially this day in age, unmotivated. Kids must learn to fail or to accept the consequences of their actions in order to learn and grow as people. Some kids choose to disrespect teachers and ignore school because they simply aren’t good at it or they believe they aren’t good enough. That thought makes them think that there’s no point in trying because there are kids who are better than them so they shouldn’t try to be better because they can’t. The way a person thinks can easily affect all of this. Now, you can argue and say, “Well they haven’t tried so how would they know” or something. Well, it’s just how the human brain works and each person is different. There are the people who are naturally smart and even though they think they will fail they still try, then there are the people who struggle and don’t think that there’s any reason for it. It all has to do with psychology and the way we think. I agree with Adam Locke, teachers should be able to be mature and encourage the kids to not be disrespectful not just yell at them for what they did wrong. School isn’t just about math and English and being able to get good grades. School should be preparing you for adulthood, it should be a learning experience about life not about subjects that 50% of kids will forget in the next 3 months. While it’s good to educate kids, we should be teaching them the basics of life and common sense. There are many high schoolers who, I swear never had common sense a day in their life. As a person who is smart and actually listens in class, dealing with disrupters is just an everyday thing. There will always be that one kid that is disrespectful, you can’t stop that no one can. It’s just the way this world works. There are always opposites to things just like good and evil, God and the Devil, superheroes and villains, murderers and lifesavers. There cannot be one without the other and if you expect it to go away sadly that will never happen, especially is we all have our own brains and opinions. While it is very unpleasant to deal with these people, we will eventually anyway so might as well learn young.
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