Teachers: lose the ‘tude
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May 22, 2009 • written by Maggie Wilken, Staff Writer
Filed under Opinion
School is almost over and the last month is usually the most stressful and dramatic month of the year. Most of us can relate to the fact that our teachers just want a break and that’s why they’re just a little less than pleasant. It’s the teachers who are always “glass half empty” that leave us wondering why they decided to be teachers.
It’s clear what many teachers fail to realize is when they themselves don’t want to be in school, we as students want to be there even less. Waking up every morning to be taught how to solve for X and Y isn’t exactly the highlight of most students’ days.
Looking at a teacher who obviously doesn’t care what they are saying makes most of us instantly come down with this disease called selective hearing. Sayonara Teach, I’ll be on the other side of my brain today dreaming for the rest of the period.
Aside from the teachers who don’t care about life, the others treat their students like they are just entering kindergarten. If you speak to me with a really sweet voice and look at me like a child, then I’ll feel a surge of intelligence come to me and I’ll be so grateful for the opportunity to use the lavatory.
I know we’re supposed to be civilized human beings, but who decided that you needed to ask for permission to use the facilities? I hate the teachers who tell me I can’t go, as if them telling me no is going to make my urge disappear. I’m sorry, but all that’s going to do is make me wet my pants and leave me with the opportunity to watch you clean it up.
Higher up on the annoyance list for students is when their teacher fails to acknowledge their existence. Granted it might be a little bit selfish to expect our teachers to answer a question we might have, but I’d venture to guess that it’s probably part of the job description.
It would be nice if we could have a middle ground. High school students don’t need to be coddled, but maybe a little recognition could be helpful. For example, if a student is talking, it would be nice if the teacher would at least pretend to be listening.
What boggles my mind is how teachers can be so perplexed at high school students’ lack of respect when they don’t even realize we learn it from them. As high school students, and near adults, the expectation is to be treated as such. If and when we aren’t treated as we should be, most often times our drive to be respectful toward our superiors plummets as a result.
Most students aren’t looking to be best friends with their teachers. Let’s be honest, a lot of teachers would meet par, but asking for mutual respect isn’t too much to ask . If push comes to shove, at least try and fake it.
I was told today that the school’s journalism teacher was fired, let get, whatever because he allowed students to voice their opinion in their school paper. I write an opinion column in my weekly newspaper each week. There are many public officials that don’t always like what I have to say, but they understand, it’s my opinion. In fact the title is “In My Opinion”. In Iraq today, citizens of all ages are risking their lives to fight for the right to vote, and express their opinions, yet today we allow a school system to say, we don’t want our students to express themselves. As long as students use good taste and use the same standards any newspaper would use, then, the school should openly support the students right to “speak out” and tell it like it is.
If the school board terminated the newspaper advisor’s job for letting students use the newspaper as a voice, then the school board should be replaced, not the teacher.