Teacher Wins -- and Everyone Wins!

In the classroom, the teacher has to win, or everyone loses!

If there is no respect for teacher, then there is no learning.

The real source of strain and trouble – not the difficult students, but the harrowing reality that nothing was going to be done about it!

I loved the comment that Mr. Morales had shared with me during my first year in South Gate.

"If there is no respect for teacher, then there is no learning."

It could not be any simpler than that.

Yet many first-year teachers are afraid to assert their authority, in large part because they do not have tenure, and all the advocacy of a wrangling union does not protect them.

"You can be fired for the cut of your hair" is the common phrase kicked around by union reps when cautioning new teachers to stay calm and stay low their first and second years working in the public school system.

Students are getting smarter, too, and they are confronting a growing number of first and second year teachers, or even long-term substitutes who have no contract whatsoever protecting them.

The teacher has to win in a classroom if there is a conflict. Students cannot be permitted to get away with walking all over a teacher, and they certainly cannot be permitted to talk back to administrators, yet the growing reality is that students are very much in charge. They know that their biggest asset to the school is the attendance money. They are well aware that schools are more reluctant to hold students accountable, for fear of losing the money or losing a case in court.

"At the end of the day, the teacher wins!" That's what one teacher told me. No matter what happens, the teacher has to take the lead in running the classroom. For most students, they have no one at home who holds them in place when they step out of line, so naturally the propensity to rebel is strong when they come to school, especially in the high school settings.

When a teacher loses, then the class loses, as students are less inclined to demonstrate requisite respect to the teacher. The game of "Gotcha!" and "Keep-Away" when it comes to student discipline is a very trying affair, something which wars more and more from the primary goal of education, which is teaching the student.