Dear Editor,
Editor, some teachers rather than making a positive change in a child’s life are doing the opposite. Not long ago I was asked to help a student who was verbally abused by a teacher and was struck by the words the teacher used to describe them. As I was trying to help the student, I was overwhelmed by my own personal memories of some teachers belittling, berating and bashing me.
How can this kind of thing still continue to happen in 2016? How can such a thing happen in an elite school? How can a teacher think he or she would get away with publicly embarrassing a child? I believe that only a teacher who is sick or has some mental problem would say such derogatory words to a student. In most countries, that teacher would have been terminated immediately or separated from the students.
Editor, I just hope that the teacher’s words will not negatively affect the student’s life, because children are very impressionable and can be impacted whether positively or negatively by the words of an adult.
From my personal experience I can tell you that words matter. Forty years ago I was told that I was a dunce, good for nothing and would never amount to anything. To this day I’m still affected by those words. Even though I’ve become successful, I’m affected by a teacher’s condescending and derogatory remarks to me. I hope this student wouldn’t have to struggle with feelings of insecurity, inferiority and low self-esteem as I did all my life.
Editor, do teachers know that their words are just as powerful to a student as a parent’s words are to their child? It’s appalling to me that in these enlightened times that some teachers continue to be so mean, vindictive and cruel to children entrusted to their care when they have responsibility for the child’s academic and emotional nurturing. When will we stop paying teachers to destroy our children’s lives?
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address
provided)
