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IT!
Even teachers can learn new lessons
By CECILIA A. TUCKER
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 3, 2003
I am not sure how to approach this issue, but I need to express my opinion about some teachers and explain why I feel the way I do.
You see, teachers have a tough job; I know that. I start every school year thinking I will do better than I did the year before. I am not a poor student, and I usually don't cause trouble at school. I do have issues with some of my teachers, though.
My problem with teachers seems to center around my not being as respectful as I could or should be. I make every effort to be respectful, but then something happens and I lose my driving force to stay positive in my attitude toward them.
My problem seems to develop when I sense my teacher shows complacency or gets an "attitude" and then dumps that onto everyone in the class. I can hear you say now, "Yeah, blame it on the teacher." But hear me out!
Occasionally, problems in the classroom don't start with the students. I know we have been labeled as disrespectful and ungrateful, and sometimes that is true. But other factors also need to be considered.
Sometimes teachers come to class with a chip on their shoulder. I have seen that when they label kids as trouble before the students have had a chance to prove they are going to be different than they were the previous year. I hear teachers trashing students, and I don't have any respect for teachers who start the year that way.
Then there are teachers who get angry when the smart student in class respectfully points out the teacher's mistakes. I watch these teachers squirm and even act disgusted with these students. Instead of finding a way to challenge these kids, they often make fun of them and put them down for speaking up.
Then there are the teachers who like to use sarcasm and name-calling as ways to handle their classroom. I have no respect for these teachers, either.
I know teaching is a low-paying and often thankless job, but I wish people would choose teaching as a profession because they want to teach, not because they want summers off. I wish teachers would give us a chance and respect us the way they want us to give them a chance and respect them.
I wish we could have an agreement at the beginning of each school year that would let everyone start with a clean slate. This would include students with teachers and teachers with students.
I wish we had a way to diffuse conflicts and create respect in the classroom, instead of sending students to the office so someone else can handle the problem.
I don't know how to get teachers more money for what they do. I don't know how to fix the problems we have in our schools. I don't know how to change the stereotypes we all contribute to in school.
I do know it can't be fun for teachers to spend their lives in a classroom with disrespectful students. I also know some teachers seldom encounter the problems in their classrooms that I hear some teachers complaining about. Why is that? What do these teachers bring to the classroom that others do not?
Maybe the advice teachers give us about attitude, respect, motivation and openness should be considered as important for them to possess as it is for us. Maybe the first lesson we could all learn from this is to "practice what we teach." What's good for the student may be good for the teacher.
- IT! (Private thoughts of the Indomitable Teen) is written by Cecilia Tucker under the editorial guidance of a panel of teenagers (in exchange for pizza and volunteer hours). Tucker is a licensed marriage and family therapist at the Counseling Center for New Direction in Seminole. Comments are welcome. You may write c/o: IT!, Xpress, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail Floridian@sptimes.com. If you are interested in being on the teen editorial panel, please contact Cecilia Tucker at revcecilia@msn.com.
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