Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Week 2: Disrespect... REALLY?

I cannot begin to tell you how serious I am about respect to substitute teachers. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when students are disrespectful and plain out rude to substitute teachers. Is it necessary to go crazy when our teacher is absent? Come on people... we should be mature at our age.

It all started when my mom became a substitute herself. She mostly substituted at the senior high when I was still attending middle school. She would come home exhausted and upset because of the inability of students to listen and obey her. People would yell out inappropriate comments and refuse to finish their assignments. From that year on, I started to really pay attention to my class’ behavior when our teacher was unable to attend class.

I have been appalled by the actions of some of my fellow students. Oh my goodness, I did not know that people could be so rude to an elder. One time a teacher would not allow a student to go to the restroom. Her answer for not allowing him to use the restroom was because of his previous actions from the start of class. He would talk while she was talking, interrupt her in mid-sentence, and make sneer remarks under his breath. So her decision of prohibiting him to use the restroom was understandable. However, he did not take no as an answer. After he had asked four different times (each in a rude tone), he got up, physically pushed her out of his way, and proceeded to the restroom. Words cannot describe how bad I felt for the substitute. At the end of class, embarrassed as all can be by my class’ behavior, I apologized to her for the disrespect she was treated with.

It is horrible how people will treat other people, especially if they are older. I find there is no excuse to not treat a substitute even more kindly then you would your own teacher. It is common courtesy and should always be kept in mind. So if we ever have a substitute teacher for Mrs. Roper, please do not let my pet peeve be your course of action! :)

5 comments:

  1. I agree with your pet peev. I admit i have joined in once or twice on a little practical joke on a substitute teacher before but i agree it is absolutely rude when people are flat out disrespectful and won't listen to substitutes or are constantly interrupting them. Not only is it disrespectful but it also interrupts the entire class and is also disrespectful to the other students in the class.

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  2. I think that you are right in that people should respect there elders. I cant believe that a student pushed the sub out of the way in his rush to the bathroom. That is not acceptable behavior.

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  3. When students are rude to subs it not only makes it awkward for the subs, but for myself also. I feel embarassed for them! Reguarding the disrespectful student, I could see how his behavior was totally unacceptable. However, it sounds like this kid really had to go to the bathroom! Maybe he just had to go so badly that he was willing to do whatever, in order to go to the bathroom.

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  4. Thanks for all of the comments! I agree with all of you!

    Tyler... Trust me, I was friends with this kid and he definitely just wanted to roam the halls. He does it every class!

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  5. I like that you focus on respect in this post. It's important to respect your elders and those with authority, and it's also important for them to respect you. I think we can all learn a lot from mutual respect and not abusing any authority we get, as well as not acting against it. And yes, I hope you will all be good to any subs I could have this semester. :) It's not easy being a sub.

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