Teacher’s heart sank after overhearing a student describe how they truly see teachers
'If a student talked to me the way I talk to my teachers...'
Teaching can be a noble profession, but oftentimes teachers find it challenging to gain students' attention, get them to listen, or set boundaries preventing any disrespect. A high school teacher's (u/Wonderful-Teacher375) heart sank when she heard a student describe how they view teachers from their lens, and sure enough, it has drawn mixed responses from online users on Reddit after she shared her story in a post on November 16.
u/Wonderful-Teacher375, who teaches art to high schoolers, had assigned her students some work when she noticed two students engaging in a conversation. When one of the students was guiding her to do the next step in her art, the other student responded by saying, "You should be a teacher!" However, the other student was not so thrilled to hear that, and their reply took the teacher aback. The student shared that they lack the patience to handle disrespectful students. They said, "If a student talked to me the way I talk to my teachers, I'd start cursing them out. I don't eff with anyone disrespecting me." With this, they sealed 'teaching' away as a job they weren't suited for. Their teacher, who overheard the conversation between the two, wrote, "They both started laughing, but she was SO close to realizing maybe she should respect her teachers!"
A 2023 study by Alexander Wettstein et al. found that when teachers perceived more aggression from students, they reported higher exhaustion. The findings suggested that teachers perceive student aggression through the lens of their coping styles. The study highlights that teachers' dysfunctional coping styles are associated with an overestimation of student aggression. While the student may have said it lightly, they failed to understand the impact their behavior can have on teachers' well-being. Soon after the post went viral, many users shared their thoughts on the story.
u/NocturnalSerpents wrote, "One of the reasons I decided not to go into the education field was because i noticed how my peers treated teachers and knew I wouldn't be able to deal with it. That was one among the many reasons... but still held a lot of weight in my decision." u/Nonfamousguy shared, "Most of us had our moments of being absolute jerks as teenagers. We didn't realize it until after the moment had passed or much later. The difference between the previous generations and this one is that they have that self-awareness. They are aware, and choose to continue the behaviors. It’s to the point that some have cited their own poor behavior as a reason they want to remain child-free." u/MadKanBeyondFODome commented, "My middle schoolers routinely ask why we don't just fight the students when they act like assholes. IDK kid, maybe I like getting paid and this beats customer service? At least when they yell at me, it's because they're kids."
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