How Do We Treat Teachers?

From having to live off of low teacher salaries to having to deal with keeping up and providing a nurturing space for their students, teachers do a lot. 

I think we can all agree that teachers are often mistreated by some specific students, and though most students are nice and respectful to the most part some students just don’t know how to pull themselves together for a few hours. Some students are outright disrespectful and malevolent.

The profession of education is losing more and more teachers to the way they are being treated and the poor teacher salaries. 

How hard is it to be a teacher?

Teaching students, especially the unruly ones, has never been an easy job, but since covid started it has been increasingly more difficult.  

Teachers have been ill treated and under appreciated. Freshman student Finley Gough pointed out, “Students at this school often show up to class extremely late or are just plain rude.” 

I personally feel that it is only a select few who choose to blatantly disrespect their teachers. But those few seem to have a lasting impact on the class. 

These students cause all kinds of problems within the classroom setting. 

“I think teachers are treated really poorly. People don’t give them enough room, compassion, or sympathy. They destroy their rooms, yell at them for the consequences of their own actions, and somehow they’re still framed as the bad guys!” Jeremy Akrish, a fellow freshman student, stated. 

In most cases, the students agree that the teachers are overall treated with disrespect and bad attitudes. As well as having a lack of respect for not only their teachers but the rest of the class and the classroom supplies and material. 

Do they deserve this kind of treatment?

While most students are in agreement with these statements, there are a few who think the opposite. 

“They are treated fairly, they want to become teachers.”  A freshman at TMHS started. “Lowkey they are not the nicest so it’s kinda their fault.” 

Teachers did not spend years of schooling to get into the profession just to put up with bad behavior. While I know that there are some less than great teachers, most are there to help you get through the year and genuinely care about the wellbeing of their students. 

“We would not be here, we would go somewhere else and be paid better. It’s a difficult and stressful low paying job.” Mrs Halboth told us when asked about why she is a teacher. She told us that she is here because of her students and the memories she makes with them. 

Is middle school any different?

Many high school students believe that the middle schoolers are much worse than them in the ways they treat their teachers. 

Kaleb Kouf claims that “Middle schoolers are very unlikely to treat a teacher with respect, given there are a few needles in the haystack that are kind to their teachers but the majority will be jerks to them. When high schoolers realize that  treating their teachers like crap is rude and no one finds it funny.”  

While sixth grader, Alexandra Kozisek, wanted to preface that she thinks the teachers though they are not treated great are still treated relatively okay. “I think that the high schoolers have matured and are better to their teachers but I do see some students that are quite rude to the teachers,” she continued later, “I have seen the way the eight graders treat their teachers like Madame Jaster. So I guess I could make a case for either of them.”

Treat your teachers and staff with respect!

Both the teachers and staff at the school deserve much better no matter what grade they teach or work with. I want current classes and the classes coming to learn how to treat the staff with dignity and respect.  

With the rate that teachers are quitting in an already small profession, it is important that we learn to treat everyone the way they want to be treated, not the way you want to be treated. “Life can be bad, but doesn’t mean that you get to treat people like crap because of the way you feel in your life”