An article was written in the Feb. 1 issue of the A&T Register criticizing teachers from the elementary level up to the collegiate level. They were classified as not caring and not having the student’s best interest at heart.
I agree there are some teachers who may not put in as much effort as they could. Some teachers’ start with strong idealism and over time may grow disillusioned. I feel this number is in the small minority and we should not paint them with such a broad stroke. There are many teachers who should be respected and do a thankless job well. I think a bigger issue lies with the fact that there are a lot of bad students.
I am not talking about the students who are not able to comprehend the work, but the ones who have an aura of self-entitlement. The ones that feel because we pay tuition to attend school we should run the asylum. Let’s be honest for a second, we all have had a class where a student is constantly fifteen minutes late and leaves ten minutes early. I am a full time student and a manager of a retail store. If any of my staff had the same lackadaisical attitude about punctuality as some of the students here they would be unemployed.
We have all been in groups where a member hardly shows up and leaves others to carry the workload. We all have been in class where an intellectual discussion cannot be conducted because a good number of the students did not do the reading the night before. We witness late assignments being turned in and students getting mad because of repercussions. We have seen students not do the required work and wanting extra credit to make it up.
Two weeks ago in one of my classes a teacher had to call out a student twice about not talking while she was lecturing. Instead of the student conceding he felt the need to challenge the teacher. What does that accomplish? We blame administrators for not caring, but there are a lot of students who do not care also. I have an Iphone that I am constantly on, even in class. I check in on Twitter, World Star Hip Hop and Blackboard. If a teacher asks me to stop checking my phone it is not my place to get indignant. I put my phone aside until after class. She should not have to tell me repeatedly to put it up.
The numbers of students who are disrespectful are in the minority. Just like the ration bad teachers, the number should be considered low. I have not done any research, but I doubt that there is a huge amount of teachers who are just in it for the paycheck. Teachers, especially those on the lower levels, for the most part do not make that much. Also, I do not think teachers like Dr. Teresa Jo Styles, Professor Stephanie Carrino and Professor Anjan Basu are here just to receive a paycheck.
Maybe I am naïve, but I think that most teachers have the student’s best interest at heart. Most of us are here to get and education, not be disruptive and share the same ideals and dreams as our instructors. Maybe we should be better students so there can be better teachers.
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- Jeff Watts, Contributor