New Teacher Questions How He's Supposed To Cope With The Constant 'Dehumanization' From His Students — 'I Really Thought I Could Help Mold Their Minds'
It's gotten so bad that he's considering leaving teaching altogether.
New Africa / Shutterstock It’s no secret that teaching is a difficult profession. Shaping the next generation of thinkers is not easy. However, some people seem to have a harder time adapting to the job than others.
One of those struggling teachers reached out online to the teaching community for help.
A new teacher said he couldn’t deal with ‘dehumanization’ from his students any longer.
A brand new teacher posted on Reddit for support and advice after struggling with his first group of students. In his since-deleted post, he explained his positive view of the teaching profession.
“I started teaching because I wanted to make people smarter,” he said. “I had a rough life growing up, and my wits were what got me through. I wanted to pass that [on] to people. I was pretty hopeful.”
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been his experience at all. “[It’s] only been a few weeks, so maybe it’s too early. Maybe if it’s happening now, it’s a sign to flee. But I’ve been humiliated too many times now,” he said sadly. “I teach middle schoolers, and [am] currently in training, so I sub in during this part of [the] year.”
He insisted that he had never experienced anything like this before. “Never in my life have I had this kind of treatment. Not in my job as a researcher or clinical job. I’ve never had people, even kids, just genuinely disregard me as a human,” he continued.
Part of the problem, he asserted, is that these kids know they can get away with bad behavior without being punished.
“They all perfectly understand the disrespect they cause, but they all know that nothing bad will come of it,” he stated. “In their eyes, they feel as though they can get away with it pretty well, so why not? I can barely get through any material, and only two kids actually care and listen.”
“I have two roads in the fork,” he mused. “I can wait more and see how it goes. Maybe a better school with a better student culture would be more tolerable?”
“Or, my second option, change career paths. This is a high-turnover career. As I’ve heard, most drop early on,” he said. “Either way, can I even cope with this disrespect? Is that even a choice?”
It was obvious that this was really affecting this man. “I’m tearing up as I’m writing this,” he lamented. “I genuinely thought they would be like me and my classmates when we were their age, but I’m starting to realize we were the academically gifted class, so that’s not a good metric. I really thought I would help mold their minds. This hurts.”
Many have acknowledged that children are more disrespectful now than ever before.
The School Superintendents Association discussed the topic of student disrespect in an article for their publication, “School Administrator.”
Author Leonard Sax wrote, “American kids today are immersed in a culture of disrespect: they disrespect parents, disrespect teachers, and disrespect one another. Within the context of that culture, mocking one’s teachers is funny and will earn you points with your peers.”
Sax argued that children are essentially taught to be disrespectful by everything they are surrounded by, from television to social media to video games.
“Kids are not born knowing how to be respectful. They have to be taught. If they are not taught, then they will look to the culture around them,” he said.
In addition to disrespect being perpetuated by culture, Sax stated that respect is something that must be taught by both teachers and parents. It must be an environment at home and at school.
Based on Sax’s findings, children are simply less well-behaved now than they were previously. It’s like an epidemic that is worsening.
This teacher experienced it in his classroom, and, unfortunately, he will have to face it if he continues teaching.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.