Teacher cruelty

by rc

We’ve all had teachers we’ve disliked, or at least the nagging “ones we’ve disagreed with.”
My earliest memory of a teacher being anything less than omnipotent and deserving of reverence was in 10th grade US History. The man had a wry, negative way of teaching. He never showed faith in my ability, and I never warmed to his sarcasm. He was the kind of teacher that incited the reaction of “up yours” when I achieved full marks on the final exam.
Negative teaching crosses cultures. Dorje is my top bunk mate, a great kid and eager learner. But from the questions he asks me before bed, it’s obvious he doesn’t entirely understand the lessons, but he has plenty of “grit.”
At school, term grades are reported publicly during assembly. At this term’s announcements, Dorje clapped enthusiastically for everyone who passed, even when his name wasn’t called. Curiously, a teacher came to me and laughed at Dorje, saying that his actions were ridiculous given his poor marks. Later in the day, this teacher made it a point to call him out publicly, making Dorje cringe and look away at his feet.
I trust from the teacher’s perspective, this public humiliation session was not cruel at all – that it enforced a lesson to work harder next time. Mind you, this teacher also does not respond to a 4 year old’s crying and blames the cuts and scratches on children’s feet as their fault and hence takes little remedial action.
Perhaps I’m just partial to perseverance as I think I’ve displayed that quality. Even as a 29 year old in my last year of foreseeable formal education, I was declared “irresponsible, a failure, a quitter” and that I’d “never get a job.” The negativity doesn’t stop, and why should we expect it to?
As we age, there probably will never cease to be moments of teaching, formal or informal. As we all become teachers, I warm to the idea that we should all be indiscriminately patient. We should encourage, give students time, and try to understand them.
All of us respond to at least some negativity; we should be thankful it exists, for we are all stronger for it.