Kate Hawkesby: Young people have an inflated sense of entitlement

Although we’re crying out for teachers, I don’t think we’re doing ourselves any favours. Well, certainly not the Teachers Complaints Committee and the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal. Stuff had a story yesterday about a relief teacher at Mt Maunganui College, who objected to two ten year olds in his class sharing headphones listening to music from a cell phone, and drumming on the table, refusing to stop apparently. The teacher tried unsuccessfully to take the phone away, so removed an ear bud from one of the students instead. Cue the hanging offence.  This, the committees from on high decreed, was an act of ‘serious misconduct’ and one that could “adversely affect the students wellbeing..” Now I don’t know if you’ve been in a school lately but there is some serious attitude going on inside many classrooms, and some pretty reprehensible behaviour, much of it stemming from a lack of any respect for authority.  So I can understand this teacher’s frustration. These days you’re expected to be not just teacher but also social services manager, wellbeing overseer, and part time parent, yet god forbid you try to discipline your students. The grievous actions of this relief teacher in trying to get a couple of students to pay attention in his class, was labelled by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal as.. “actions [that] could bring the teaching profession into disrepute.” Fighting this through an appeals process, which he lost, has cost this teacher $55,000 so far and he says it could yet cost him another $20,000.  He’s been censured, his teaching registration’s now lapsed and he’s decided to just retire. He said the whole process has been ‘farcical.’ He was quoted saying his advice to other teachers would be to .. ‘not, under any circumstances, feel any responsibility for the welfare of your students, because it will cost you big time.’ And therein lies the rub for teachers.  You’re expected to be compassionate, holistic; all round guardians for these students, yet at the same time don’t even think about disciplining them or trying to set a boundary. In this case all the teacher was after was a bit of attention in his class, I assume so that some learning could take place, but unfortunately, the students right to listen to music instead of doing maths, appears more important. That kind of logic is so topsy turvy I shudder to think how hard it must be for teachers, it’s no wonder youth crime is at an all-time high. If kids know they can get away with disrespectful behaviour then you’ve lost the battle before it even starts. They’re not listening. This teacher said he was doing his ‘best to control some of the most unruly behaviour’ he’d ‘witnessed in his 40 years as a teacher.’ He was reported saying  he'd ‘never been abused like that in [his] life.’ Which speaks to the state of young people these days, but also to the current climate of pandering to the offenders not the victim. The fact a teacher is getting abused at all, is something we should be disgusted by, but we’re not, sadly we’re barely surprised. But the fact a Disciplinary Tribunal then decides a student’s wellbeing may be ‘adversely affected‘ by having an ear bud flicked out of his ear, shows how far down the road we’ve gone on promoting an inflated sense of entitlement among young people.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.