Today, I heard a student say that teachers need to learn to respect students if they want to get respected. What happen to respecting adults? Why is it that teenagers feel they are entitled to disrespecting adults? Why is it that teenagers feel that they are entitled to having a cell phone and speaking on the phone when ever they feel? When did policies change and if they did why did they change? Is it too much to ask that students give teachers their undivided attention? Or is it that their teenage social life is more important that their education? Can anyone please shed some light on these questions that have me purplexed? I can not understand why parents would allow their children who are failing, consistently miss school, and have no respect for adults, have the priveledge of owing a cell phone. Is it that I am too old and am not keeping up with the times?
I think everyone, no matter if they are young people or adults, should keep in mind that generation gap will always exist, and that it's very natural that different generations don't understand each other. Let's remember Mark Twain's famous quote: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” So let's be more tolerant and expect respect from them only after we respect them as well.
ReplyDeletejust my thoughts..... not sure if I'm wrong but.......
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, to try and understand the situation I would ask myself what is the student’s social surroundings? What type of support does he/she have at home? How are his parents involved in his education? Why does he/she feel they have the right to disrespect adults?
I guess I would reflect on the student’s situation and try and find out where the student is coming from. Is he coming from a world where his parents fought every day and then mistreated him for even being in the same room? Are his parents too busy because they need to work 2-3 jobs at minimum wage to put food on the table or are they just lazy?
In my opinion teachers need to take time to connect with their students. Gain their trust and being to become a mentor, encouraging them to display respectful behavior. Share your own thoughts but allow them to share their thoughts too.
I think same things happening around the world. What you described about teenagers are almost identical in my country. Many public teachers who used to be regarded respectful figures,lost confidence in handling rebellious students in class and quit their teaching. Whenever I deal with them, I feel helpless, too. From my experience through counseling with those students, they always have some issue with their familiy, parents. Last year, two of my students dropped out of school . I tried to persuade them not to quit. They didn't listen. I just felt sorry for them because some day when they get old enough to be called adults, they maybe regret many things they did when young like quitting their school .
ReplyDeleteI hear you. The issue of teens disrespecting authorities is just but a manifestation of a much larger issue. I saw a cartoon comparing a teacher/parent conference in the 1960's with one today. In the 1960's one the boys parents demanded the boy explain his poor grades. In the current day one parents yelled at the teacher to explain the low grades as the little lad looked on with a smirk on his face. I think the issue revolves around societies vilifying of any sort of hierarchy or system. It is this new mantra of these days of if it feels good you have a right to do it. And everything is relative and there are no standards. This will bite in more places than we can readily see. This is the system these children are in now. How do we expect this children to excel in the workforce? There is a boss there. And they better not try this attitude mess with law enforcement folks. They may be bitten to bloody pulp.
ReplyDeleteThe scary thing is we may all be guilty promoting poor values in our own ways.
No, you are not old at all. I think that the root of this problem is very much the culture that our government or society has established in terms of raising kids. And that culture is that kids are taught to not having to face consequences to their actions. So they know that when they engage in any inappropriate or unacceptable activity, they will not face any consequences. And many times, when they do face consequences to their actions, these consequences are very lenient. There is, I believe, too much leniency (maybe even a detrimental leniency) on the way they behave at home and on the way they behave at school. At home, many parents let their kids do as they please. If anything, parents will say something to their kids that they later easily discard or ignore. And many parents do allow this. For instance, if a kid gets a bad note from school for attendance issues or inappropriate behavior, parents say something like “you are not to use your cellphone to talk to your friends for one day.” Before we know it, the kid is already having a great time chatting with friends. Many parents witness this defiance and just ignore it. At school, students who display unacceptable behaviors will only face very soft consequences such as after school detention. So, these are reasons why kids do whatever they please. And these are reasons why a lot of kids are growing nowadays without human values such as respect and understanding for others.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I have always had trouble enforcing my "punishments" for Hannah. But I am learning, my biggest source of defiance from her is when I take away TV (meaning Netflix since I am lucky that I did something wrong in my set up of the passcodes on the TV so the TV Hannah used to watch is gone). I have also hidden the ipad and the charger for the old iphone. So all that is left is the remote for Netflix, which I also hide so that I can control how much TV Hannah watches. Big tantrums when I take away the TV, but I have learned it is my one source of power. So I use it in spite of the: You are so mean! YES I AM! And I rule!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good topic to bring up, because it is so relevant in our classrooms. I do not think you are too old and I do think your values about respect are timeless. I also think that a reality, however, is that young children are exposed to technology (cell phones, iPads, etc.) at an extremely young age and it becomes a big part of their lives. Now, this may be a difference with this generation, but it should not dictate behavior. So, I think students should respect their teacher, and I think that the teacher should also engage the students by incorporating technology (a language they are probably quite fluent in) into the classroom in an educational way. This is a potential win win.
ReplyDelete-interested reader