Improve Student & Teacher Relations?
by Student and teacher relations are not always the smoothest. In fairness they never have been. Teachers are paid to teach. Students are there to learn. But as with anything in life there are certain “grey areas”. Nothing is black and white and none more so than strains between adults and teenagers in the classroom. So is there anything we can do to unite the two?
Let’s be honest with ourselves, how often can we as adults look back and say we had the perfect relationship with our teachers in school? Chances are there aren’t that man of us and today this is highlighted more so than ever before.
Switch on the news and there are terrifying examples of students exacting revenge on teachers and classmates. Teachers and students stabbed or gunned down by one or a few kids hellbent on taking out their own personal problems on them. It makes headline news worldwide. And whilst we sit there in open mouthed horror at the atrocities beamed into our television sets and radios, we reflect as to what the hell drove the students to carry out such acts.
I now I have. But then I look and think about the society I lived in and grew up in and the society the teenagers are now facing and the uncertain future they face.
It isn’t an excuse for any such behaviour.
Many parents wonder after seeing such acts what could have been put in place to stop this? Is it school security? Is it some form of government investment or political failing? Is it the education authorities fault or does it lie with the parents of those kids themselves?
It is in broad terms all of them. But something else is missing. Not just the emotional turmoils and pressures that kids face as they move from year to year through their schooling towards exams, but also the teachers themselves.
Governments set targets and do so not just to make themselves look good, but also as an incentive to schools to financially gain better status in such things as equipment and ratings. That is passed to local education authorities who then pass it to the schools. That subsequently is passed to the very teachers themselves who educate our children. All that equates to extra pressure.
That pressure is then handed to our children and also the parents. Your child is expected to achieve this grade. Your child should be getting this right. You as my student should be a better student. So, it’s a domino effect. From high up to the base level which is the very kids themselves.
Oh and let’s not forget the uniform issue. That is great but it doesn’t always work. Why? Because kids like to rebel. They are teenagers.
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