Respect and Trust the Teacher

I live in Denver, Colorado. A couple years ago there was a story in the news where a kid was sent to the Principal’s office for misbehaving. While waiting for the Principal, the kid continued to misbehave and the Principal’s secretary duct taped his mouth shut. I think she may have even duct taped his wrists together so that he couldn’t take the tape off of his mouth. People were outraged and I believe the secretary lost her job and may have been arrested as well.

I am 52 years old. My father is 75. When discussing this story with my father, he said, “When I was in school, if I had been sent to the Principal’s office and his secretary had thought it necessary to duct tape my mouth shut, the last person in the world that I would have told is my parents. That’s because, my parents would have believed the Principal’s secretary was in the right and I was in the wrong and, as such, my Mom and Dad would have given me the whuppin’ of my life. And you know what, the same was true for every other kid in our school. Seems today that everybody thinks their kid is right, and nobody trusts and respects the teacher or their judgment.”

I don’t know anything about the educational system in Shanghai except that they scored Number One in the world on the PISA test. However, my instinct tells me that there are probably not a lot of kids in Shanghai disrupting their elementary classes. And, if any of those young Chinese kids ever get sent to the Principal’s office, I have the feeling that duct tape or not, the last person they are going to tell about it is their parents. What do you think?

In today’s society, things have changed, and duct taping the kid’s mouth shut is considered unacceptable, as would be washing out the kid’s mouth with soap because he wouldn’t be quiet or was saying foul language. But what is more unacceptable, and what is jeopardizing our educational system, is the fact that we don’t give teachers and administrators the trust, the respect, or the authority which they so dearly need if they are ever to succeed. We need to change our culture back to one that presumes the teacher is right and the kid is wrong. Without this, our teachers may be doing their best, but they’re doing it with one hand tied behind their back – no wonder we are 31st in the world in math.

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