Young People Ask . . .
Why Is My Teacher So Unfair?
FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Vicky speaks for many youths when she says, “I can’t stand an unfair teacher.” Why, in a 1981 survey of 160,000 American youths, 76 percent of the youths polled accused their teachers of some sort of favoritism!—The Private Life of the American Teenager.
Understandably, youths are upset when they get low grades for what they feel is high-grade work. They resent it when discipline seems excessive, uncalled for, or even motivated by bias. “Once I yawned and I had to go out into the hallway just because I am Black,” claimed 12-year-old Ivan.
Also, youths are angry when special attention or preferential treatment is given to teacher’s pets. Thirteen-year-old Diane accuses: “They favor the smartest ones, or the prettiest one.” No wonder, then, that in the above-mentioned survey, youths rated a teacher’s fairness as more important than his knowing the subject he teaches!
Teachers Are People Too
Teachers are far from infallible. They have their fair share of hang-ups, quirks, and, yes, prejudices. At times their emotions get in the way of their judgment. A youth named Freddy found this out when he noticed that his teacher “was snapping at everyone.” Freddy tactfully approached the teacher and found the cause of this surly behavior. “It’s just that I had a problem with my car this morning,” the teacher explained. “It overheated on the way to school and I got to work late.”
You may likewise find yourself—for no apparent reason—the butt of a teacher’s wrath. Nevertheless, the Bible cautions: “Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended.” (Ecclesiastes 7:9) Yes, how distressed do you really need to become over the matter? Is this simply a temporary flare-up that will soon be forgotten? Can you give him the benefit of the doubt and forget the whole thing? The disciple James said: “We all stumble many times. If anyone does not stumble in word, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle also his whole body.”—James 3:2.
Teachers and Their Pets
Particularly irritating, though, are the special favors accorded to teacher’s pets. Explains 13-year-old Caroline: “Teacher’s pets are favorite kids—students that they like better than others. Usually the teacher’s pets are the ones that are very good in school, and hardly get in trouble.”
A survey of elementary-school teachers indeed revealed that teachers tended to favor “passive conformists and students with above-average ability, particularly bright, obedient girls.” A university professor quoted in Seventeen magazine further observed: “A student may also attract attention because she happens to be good at something important to that teacher.” Whatever the reason, when a teacher grants special favors or attention to a student, he often stirs up resentment. Says Caroline: “I don’t think it’s fair to other people who aren’t teacher’s pets.”
Why do some teachers act this way? Well, bear in mind that a teacher faces unique demands and pressures. The book Being Adolescent describes teachers as being in a “serious predicament,” saying: “They are confronted with twenty or more teenagers whose minds are usually elsewhere. Their job is to engage the students’ attention with information . . . that is not related to the students’ immediate personal lives, and, furthermore, may be difficult for them to learn. They have before them a group of highly moody, distractible teenagers, generally unaccustomed to concentrating on anything for more than 15 minutes.” Doubtless you’ll agree that there’s more than a measure of truth to this.
Is it any wonder, then, that a teacher may heap attention on the student who ‘is good in school and hardly gets in trouble’? After all, it is human nature to be drawn to someone who makes life more pleasant for us. True, the Bible condemns “making partial distinctions.” (James 3:17) And it may gall you when seeming apple-polishers get more attention than you do. But is this necessarily evil?
It may seem that way. But remember that the Bible tells us that Jacob loved his son Joseph more than his other sons. Why? Some of Jacob’s sons had brought heartache to Jacob. Joseph’s conduct, however, was impeccable. Too, Joseph was the son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. Did this mean that Jacob cared nothing for his other sons? On the contrary. On one occasion Jacob even sent Joseph to see if his other sons were “safe and sound.” And when on his deathbed Jacob gave out blessings, he was both fair and impartial to all his sons.—Genesis 34:30; 35:22; 37:2, 3, 14; 49:1-33.
So why be upset or jealous if some diligent student is a teacher’s pet as long as your educational needs are not ignored? Besides, it may not be a bad idea to be a bit more diligent yourself.
War in the Classroom
What, though, about the teacher that seems genuinely hostile toward his students? Said one student of his teacher: “He kept thinking that we had all declared war on him and decided to get us first. He was one paranoid person.” However, many teachers feel they have a right to be a bit “paranoid.”
One youth told an Awake! reporter: “In my school, the teachers are afraid of the students.” Yes, as the Bible foretold, these are “critical times hard to deal with.” Youths are often “without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness.” (2 Timothy 3:1-3) Said U.S.News & World Report: “Teachers in many urban school districts live with the fear of violence.”
If not under physical assault, teachers often find their dignity being attacked. Wrote former teacher Roland W. Betts: “Children see it as their inherent responsibility to . . . [figuratively] push them and poke them and see just how far they will bend or stretch before they will finally snap . . . When the children sense that they have pushed a new teacher to within a hair’s breadth of his breaking point, they push some more.” Have you or your classmates been party to irritating classroom pranks, and the like? Then don’t be surprised at your teacher’s reaction.
The Bible says: “For mere oppression may make a wise one act crazy.” (Ecclesiastes 7:7) In the atmosphere of fear and disrespect that pervades some schools, some teachers understandably overreact and become harsh disciplinarians. Large numbers even become disenchanted and quit the teaching profession. Could you, therefore, have some empathy for the teachers who are trying to cope with difficult situations?
Discipline—Why Needed?
It’s hard to be understanding, though, when something as important as your grades is involved. Eleven-year-old Stefan, for example, complains: “It’s not right that a teacher can take out revenge on a child through his mark. For instance, one of my teachers does that. If a child is caught throwing candy wrappers in the desk, it’s 1 1/2 points off the report card.”
Admittedly, threatening students with bad grades may not seem fair. But is it really unjust—or just strict? Teachers do have a responsibility to maintain order, and at times that means administering discipline. However, the Bible’s advice is: “Take hold on discipline; do not let go. Safeguard it, for it itself is your life.” (Proverbs 4:13) Remember, without discipline the learning process suffers. As one youth confessed: “The easy teachers you can walk all over, you’re not going to learn anything from.”
But you are in school to learn. And if that means quietly accepting a bit of misdirected discipline, or absorbing a frustrated teacher’s wrath, so be it. The ability to deal respectfully with those in authority is a skill that could one day mean the difference between employment and the unemployment line. Of course, as a future article will show, you are not entirely helpless in the face of school injustice. But in the meantime, try to have a bit of empathy for your instructors. Perhaps you’ll see that some of them are not as unfair as you may think.
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The attention given to teacher’s pets often stirs resentment
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The rising tide of school violence has made the teacher’s job a difficult one