gvapid -
I have a few comments some which echo others.....
1. Teachers of course are human. We err. But we also succeed.
2. Teaching is our day job. Although many of us "bring work home" we also have families and other interests.
3. Teachers are professionals. UNfortunately some misuse their authority, but there are also many many leagl issues that might lead a particular teaher to respond in certain ways. As an example, you became a bit upset when one comment lumped you in with kindergarteners with boo boos. Did you know that legally many schools are not even allowed to give out bandaids? Some studnets may be allergic to the adhesive!
18 is a rough time - you are only legally required to stay in school till this age and then we all hope that all students continue to be lifelong learners.
My wish for you is this - if you are so passionate about education and student's rights - BECOME A TEACHER! We always welcome new ideas.
gvapid, I feel for you. I've been there. My guess is your issue is not so much a lack of teaching as it is all the off-the-subject "guidance" teachers give out. If they stayed with teaching, well then, who would care, right?
I agree that teachers need to control their classrooms, but I feel strong exception--even 30 years later!--with the harsh handling of students I saw and personally received in school.
At my private school these demigods and demigoddesses reigned without censure or sense!
The girls were not allowed to wear makeup, so any girl who just happened to be pretty without it was automatically singled out. Mrs. H___ would shove her ugly, alcohol-swollen face into mine and "inspect" to see if I was complying with the rules. This was an everyday, just-before-chapel routine. Imagine!!!!! She would roam the halls "correcting" all of us in the most humiliating ways.
When the boys failed their definitions test, she would line them up in the hallway in front of the girls' room and swat them once for each word they missed. How's that for over-the-top? Not only was it an inappropriate punishment, not only was it physical punishment from someone of the opposite sex, it was also done in a highly public place--purposefully for humiliation.
We were made to kneel in the halls for punishment, too. For example, if we resisted the morning's facial inspection or talked back to these miserable examples of people.
I will say there were really some pretty good teachers there, but some of them were so miserable--yeeikes!--whatever they were teaching, as a student, I just didn't want to go there.
You are fortunate in that you are now able to discern--as Reverend S___ told me when, as an adult, I called him and asked him for an explanation as to the teachers' behavior--". . . the sh-t from from the shinola."
In every field, there are people who are not professional, who are not happy, who are downright dysfunctional. In any job you go to, you will have to work for such people, with such people, and serve such people as your customers.
YOU are responsible for getting your education. YOU can read. There are hundreds of books available for free at any library on any subject. USE them. Mentor YOURSELF, if you have to. Don't be passive; be active. NOBODY will do it for you, either as a student or as a professional.
And try to be patient with those who are less functional than you. Someday, you may have a rough year or two yourself, and not be at your best. If you have measured out some compassion for others along the way, you will be kinder to yourself during your difficult years.
And you will have them.
We all do.
Is gvapid still around? His or her last post was on May 16th.
I was hoping for a response . . .
Oh well.
Dupre; I think you may have missed the point of the lack of response here; your post is somewhat cyclical; you have expressed the problem, demonstrated the harm which "non"teachers in the position of techers can cause, and completed the exercise with a potential solution.
As you point out obliquely, teachers are instruments by which people find out how to learn; if they cannot, or do not serve that purpose, then they fail their profession.
I would also reiterate my post of 14:53 re: :"adulthood" @
http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7641&start=60
Uh . . . Okay . . . thanks.
I guess I took my clue from gvapid's comment
Quote:. . . but isn't it wrong to say "do as I say, not as I do"
It's been said that eduation is more about enculturating people and about teaching them how to function in a group than actually teaching people a subject or even teaching them how to teach themselves, hence the need for "morally" controlling students' behavior.
It's really at the college level where everything we "learned" is reevaluated and we learn how to discern and how to teach ourselves.
I resent the behavior I saw at that school from certain teachers and cannot fathom how they got away with it.
Surely such treatment did not enhance enculturation or education.
What was the point?
