After reading about the teacher at Narbonne High School who lost composure because of a student's heckling, not only could I relate, but I sighed with resignation: " The more things change, the more they stay the same." I felt for her. She did not deserve what happened. Sadly, some teachers have to reach such a breaking point before anything changes.
Most people have no idea about the abuse which teachers endure in today's classrooms. If there is any need for a "No Bullying Zone", it's for teachers from their students.
Kids can be very cruel, and teachers are expected to put up with it. Why? Administrators feel powerless. The schools need the attendance money, so they reluctantly refuse to discipline students beyond detention or Saturday School. If the student has a minority status, officials fear potential lawsuits should they support the teacher.
The toll on educators' physical health and mental-wellbeing cannot be ignored. Students are more abusive than ever these days, and the unresponsive bureaucracies in our schools have made it worse.
As a student teacher, I witnessed one kind teacher in tears because of racist remarks from a student: "All they gave him was a detention!" she cried. She quit before Christmas Break. To survive the semester, I wrote so many referrals, my mentor teacher scolded me in front of his colleagues. But at least I survived.
At one high school, student disrespect was so rampant, and the administration so enabling, all I could do was send the most difficult student to the library every day. When I spoke to the dean, she appeared to care, admitting: "We have to do something about that student." She did nothing. When I spoke to the school counselor about removing that student entirely, she rolled her eyes, then explained to me how much the principal loved that student from hell. "The whole thing disgusts me!" She lamented. Such favoritism protects the worst students, who become a teacher's worst nightmare.
In another school, I was covering a class for a teacher who went on stress leave because of the abusive, disorderly students assigned to her. They had even stolen her cell phone! For the next six weeks, I could do little else but refer students to the dean. The assistant principal practically adopted one unruly student. "He gets on my nerves." I confided. "And he knows it!" She smiled back, proud of "her boy".
About another awful kid, I got this excuse: "He has a right to an education!" the dean whined on the phone. Because the dean sent that student back, he compromised me for the rest of term. Finally, the kid's father finally dragged him to the counselor's office. He was quieter that day, but after three chances I ended up sending him out again. When I told the counselor what happened, she was perplexed: "I just met with him! You know, sometimes kids try to get under your skin. You have to ignore it."
Not if the disrespect is so disruptive that no one can learn. So much for a child's right to an education.
As a substitute teacher, I would run into students who had troubled me in the past. One kid laughed to recount how he had frustrated me, taunting me. That day he pushed the wrong button, and I tore him up in front of his peers. Shivering with shame, he kept his mouth shut. "That felt good, didn't it?" he later acknowledged.
You bet it did!
Teachers put up with so much these days. I just hope that now teachers will speaking up for themselves.
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