Spoilt. Thin-skinned. Pampered. No, I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about the children of the present. I grew increasingly disturbed over the past one year when I read in the papers of increasing cases and complaints against teachers. Today in The New Paper, a parent complained against a teacher for using the words, ’stupid’, ’suay’ and ‘numbskull’. The teacher has been sent for counselling.
…..
I mean seriously. What is wrong with people??? After a six-month teaching stint (after which I have decided that this system is not my cup of tea), I realise that the attitude towards education is very different from the one my friends and I grew up with. In Primary School, I used to get pieces of chalk thrown onto my face and even the black board duster would find itself on the cheeks of a sleeping boy once in a while, leaving a coloured chalk mark on his face or hair, wherever it landed. Incomplete and slip shod work in lined exercise books were tossed out of the classrooms, and we had to crawl out and take it. Yes. It may all seem so barbaric. But I look back fondly. Not at the stinging chalk pieces, but at the fact that my teachers ingrained the idea that education was a privilege. We were all lucky to be there. Schools were for aquiring knowledge, and since we spent half our lives there (or more), they knew the responsibility of imparting ethics and morals to their charges. These times, it seems as though students feel that access to education is a right. While that is true, the other positive moulding attitudes do not seem to come along with that thought. It’s fine to be rude to teachers since it’s their right. It’s fine not to care, since it’s their right. It’s fine to be sloppy and push the boundaries since teachers nowadays can’t do much and their Papa and Mama will run to their rescue and ensure the teacher who used the word ’stupid’ in class be sent for counselling, nevermind the daily stresses that a teacher goes through anyway.
Parents play a very, very important role in the upbringing of children. It’s your children after all. But they must realise that the attitudes that they impart to their children through their own behaviour is more crucial than it seems. By storming into the school every little time, the students fail to see their own responsibilty and role in daily life. Their actions are defended and even justified. It is an alarming trend, really.
I think it is time that classroom discipline makes a comeback. It is under-rated and it’s importance is overlooked. I’m afraid we are breeding a hoard of nambypambies and God forbid, maybe even National Service might be of no help to them!
P.S: I am also quite aware of the other side of the coin- teachers who abuse their authority and children/students/parents aware of the mechanism of efficient education. So, thoughts above, are a broad generalisation.
