There are many stories of harassment, yelling, and insults directed at teachers in class, perhaps too many. One of the most recent comes from a high school teacher in Toledo. When he arrived at the classroom one day, he found a student sitting backward, with her back to the blackboard. He asked her to turn around, but the 13-year-old student replied, “Didn’t you come to teach? Then teach the class and leave me alone.”
That same girl had problems with other teachers until the school decided to call the family. The teacher, who has 25 years of teaching experience, confessed that the cure was almost worse than the disease, because the father confronted the teachers, claiming they had a “dislike” for his daughter.
Unfortunately, this story isn’t extraordinary but quite common; it’s a drop in the ocean that teachers have to navigate every day.
Data that alarms and encourages reflection
A survey conducted by the Independent and Civil Servants’ Trade Union (CSIF) revealed that 90% of teachers interviewed say they have faced some type of violence at their school. The most common situations include insults, harassment, vandalism, psychological violence, threats from students and their families, lack of respect and recognition of authority, and confrontations via WhatsApp.
In the same survey, conducted among 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers, it was found that more than a quarter considered school life unpleasant and that discipline was insufficient. Seventy-five percent indicated that teachers have little or no authority. Twenty-eight percent stated that their relationships with students’ parents are “very bad,” “not good,” or nonexistent.
These figures show that, in recent years, teachers have been gradually losing authority over their students, and that they feel unprotected and abandoned by the school itself and the laws, which tend to increasingly tie them down in favor of minors and their parents.
Education begins at home
A significant part of the responsibility for this situation falls on parents, who have a duty to educate their children to respect others. However, teachers have witnessed how, in recent years, more and more parents are siding with their children, without analyzing the context or the situation, pressuring school principals against teachers.
Of course, it’s not about always “giving the teacher the right,” because sometimes they don’t, but addressing children’s school problems from a mature and respectful perspective, without the desire to blame someone but simply to find good solutions, is a good starting point.
We must remember that an overly permissive education at home, lacking clear limits or rules, and lacking values such as respect, often ends up generating disruptive behavior in children, as well as an arrogant and self-centered attitude, which is very difficult to curb at school.
While it’s true that educational centers promote the development of values, it’s no less true that the seed must be planted at home. If children grow up in a home where yelling or indifference are the usual means of communication, it’s normal for them to relate to others that way.
Children’s attitudes almost always reflect their parents’ attitudes, or lack thereof, which amounts to the same thing. It’s not their fault; it’s the parents’ obligation to raise them in a climate of coexistence and mutual respect. This doesn’t mean raising children with a “heavy hand”; they can be disciplined with love.
Let us remember that education, which begins at home, is the best vaccine against violence and the best gift we can give them to help them have a balanced emotional life.
Leave a Reply