Some "teachers" distorted the noble title: THE TEACHER, through their irresponsible behaviours which in same cases resulted in social scorn and disdain at the teaching job.
1) A "teacher" brought her personal photo-album into class and asked her pupils (adolescents) to have a look. Some pupils praised her "beauty", clothes,... but a pupil (an adolescent), jokingly, asked her hand for marriage. So, she expelled him out of the classroom for his "insolence" as she remarked!? When she went home home, she discovered that a photo of her (female) colleague was missing. The latter threatened the former to resort to the police. Consequently, the "teacher" asked a pupil (my brother) to secretly "detect" his mates and bring her back the photo, and she would reward him by (20/20) in the following Test. He did and she "kept her word".
2) A" teacher" was found playing cards (Rummy) and exchanging cigarettes with his pupil in a cafe. When the colleagues blamed him for that, he justified that his relationship with his learners "mustn't be Vertical. It must be Horizontal."
3) A "teacher" wrote his mobile number on the blackboard on the first school-day. Later on, he complained about phone disturbances from both boys and girls.
4) A "teacher" slept with his pupil (a girl). He lost his freedom and job. Now, he is working as a hairdresser.
5) Some "teachers" were making business with their "Tests". They were having private lessons at home. Pupils who were attending those "lessons" were getting the best marks. The pupils revealed that their "teachers" were giving them the same "Test" before the Test Day. Therefore, the Ministry of Education spread an Official Circular preventing teachers from having home lessons for their own learners i.e. if you teach Group A you are not allowed to give them private lessons but you can do that for another group taught by another teacher anywhere.
6) A "teacher" was not accepted by his colleagues to abide with them for his irresponsible behaviour. So, he abode with his ex-pupil. The ex-pupil made his ex-teacher's secrets public...
7) A "teacher" asked her pupil -whose brother is an English teacher- for a ready made Test. When she looked at the borrowed Test, she literally said to her pupil who brought her the test:"How difficult it is! I myself didn't understand it." Note here that the Test was for Grade 6 (Secondary Education). Both teachers were teaching the same levels but in different areas.
8) A married "teacher" having lessons at home, was sexually using his pupil (an adolescent girl). He "introduced" her to his friends. When she refused, he threatened to spread her pornographic photos via mobiles and webs. After several adventures, she resorted to her parents who, in turn, resorted to the Court. He lost his Freedom , Reputation and his Wife...
These are but exceptions. I think that these species do not reflect the true image of THE TEACHER as a noble title. THOSE CANNOT BE TEACHERS whatever reasons they give. Surely, they exist everywhere and in every domain as there is no pure institution in the world whatever pretensions are given, for such abuses / offences / behaviours are always taking place out of sight. We learn about them haphazardly.
However, Most of the Educational Team are full of Dignity, Magnanimity, Consciousness, and Self-respect.
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Salam to y'all there :
I agree with every thing Rida wrote about some indelicate and false teachers.
Allow me to add this : My daughter is at secondary school ,she and her classmates have a female English teacher who pronounces English very badly. My daughter knows that because I teach her English at home.
It was about the word " Chocolate "
The teacher spells it like this tshokoleite ' with late pronounced as in late , not early ) and not choklit.
Very innocently and politely my daughter pronounced it " choklit "
Then , the GREAT teacher summoned my daughter is a dictatorial way to say 'it' as she (teacher) says it , or she (my daughter) will get ZERO mark.
Again , innocently my daughter replied that this word spells ' choklit' and not ' tshokoleite'
My daughter was sent home. I found her crying. She told me the whole story. I felt the volcano that is inside me getting active. I mustered my forces to remain calm and show 'restraint' as they say in politics.
I went to the principal ( locally called director) and he considers me as a friend and respects me much. I just exposed the case and asked for nothing . i proposed nothing either. I was waiting for his response .
" Just a month and a half left for the school to close doors and next year your daughter who is like my daughter will have another teacher " he answered me.
Go figure ......
" what about the zero mark my daughter was wrongly given ? " i asked him
" I can change it into 16 " don't worry .
How can anyone go figure....
I better stop..... Thank you and see you next time.
Mo Hobeyl
I would like to heartily thank you for your comment upon my post.
First of all, we should confess that there is no encyclop(a)edic person i.e. someone who knows everything. Thus, mistakes always happen. So, we should confess that we are human beings and we cannot be unmistakable. However, we would not allow serious mistakes that may harm others in a way or another. But let me please tell you the following:
+ Be sure that your daughter embarrassed her teacher in front of the pupils when she "corrected" her teacher. You said that your daughter innocently and politely "corrected" her teacher. I believe you and your daughter but the teacher felt embarrassed in front of her students. I am not defending her as I don't know her at all but that is just a feeling. You, as everyone, know that humans do not want others to embarrass them deliberately or innocently. That is a Truth. Put yourself in the classroom. Imagine while you are teaching, a pupil, whose father / mother is a teacher, "corrects" you in front of your pupil. You tell him that he / she must follow you because you are right and he / she is wrong. You believe yourself to be right while you are wrong and so does your pupil.The pupil keeps insisting that you are wrong. All the pupils are listening and waiting for your reactions. If you accept your pupil's "correction" (he might be right and you might be wrong), you will lose all the pupils' confidence. Then, to "save face" you will send the pupil out of the classroom.
That's why the teacher sent your daughter home.
As an affectionate, caring, loving father you said: "I felt the volcano that is inside me getting active. I mustered my forces to remain calm and show 'restraint' as they say in politics." I congratulate you for the "self-restraint" otherwise things would have worsened. You were wise to talk to the headmaster (director) but you should have talked first to the teacher herself. In your place, I would friendly and calmly talk to the teacher. If she convinced me, that would be alright, otherwise I would talk to the headmaster, to his boss, to the minister of education...
+ Be sure that the teacher, afterwards, took a dictionary and looked up the word "chocolate" to verify the "right" pronunciation, or at least asked a colleague or a friend about it. Take that for granted.
I didn't like the director's response to you when you asked him about your daughter's Zero:"I can change it into 16 " don't worry ". On what criterion? Is it legal for the director to interfere in marking? This is really strange. I do not know the rules in your country. In Tunisia, no one can change the mark except the teacher. The headmaster (director) is responsible for administrative tasks. He/She is not allowed by law to interfere in marking. The teacher himself must justify this "change". This doesn't mean that a teacher does whatever he / she likes. On the contrary, there are rules limiting the teacher's prerogatives in Tunisia. Here are some limitations.
Teachers are legally not allowed to:
There are other rules but we do not know them. We learn them via the Teachers Syndicate. This Corpus has been struggling for more Teachers rights via different ways. From the 1970s till present, the Syndicate has been struggling for a Legal Written document that will depict the Teachers Rights and Duties.
Hi Ridha
You have pointed out several instances, where the sanctity of the word teacher itself is lost. The situation is the same here. It happens at the school, college, post graduate and doctoral level.
In one of my earlier comments, I had clearly mentioned, that you cannot become a teacher by chance. To dedicate your life to teaching is a conscious decision.
We cannot change anyone including the system. When the person at the helm of affairs is unethical, you can clearly understand what kind of an example, he would set for his faculty team. There were many instances where I was insulted and humiliated during the course of my career, but I am fiercely proud of the fact, that I never compromised on my value systems.
Apart from this, your upbringing also plays a vital role in your entire life. Good breeding is clearly visible and commands tremendous respect.
+ Be sure that your daughter embarrassed her teacher in front of the pupils when she "corrected" her teacher. You said that your daughter innocently and politely "corrected" her teacher. I believe you and your daughter but the teacher felt embarrassed in front of her students. I am not defending her as I don't know her at all but that is just a feeling. You, as everyone, know that humans do not want others to embarrass them deliberately or innocently. That is a Truth. Put yourself in the classroom. Imagine while you are teaching, a pupil, whose father / mother is a teacher, "corrects" you in front of your pupil. You tell him that he / she must follow you because you are right and he / she is wrong. You believe yourself to be right while you are wrong and so does your pupil.The pupil keeps insisting that you are wrong. All the pupils are listening and waiting for your reactions. If you accept your pupil's "correction" (he might be right and you might be wrong), you will lose all the pupils' confidence. Then, to "save face" you will send the pupil out of the classroom.
I disagree entirely, the only one who embarassed the teacher was the teacher. The child was right, the teacher was wrong, face should NEVER come before honesty. I teach English and I have made mistakes in Class, students have corrected me. The correct way to deal with this situation is to provide proof what you are saying, if they say you speak the word incorrectly you show them the dictionary where it says exactly how to speak, you don't insult and degrade them thereby destroying their enjoyment of the language. A classroom is a place for discussion, I often run into cases where the way I say a word is different from the way my student says a word because of the different styles of English, I don't insult them and tell them they are wrong and give them 0, I educate them on difference in the language and I show them exactly why they I am right, if I'm not right I accept that and try to make a joke of it so that everyone can see everyone makes mistakes in language, even teachers.
You mentioned the other students in the class, the way this teacher reacted in no way allowed the other students to have faith in them, it just frightened them so that they will never speak out in class again. The other students will see that the teacher was wrong and they will have no faith in anything that teacher says again.
Where on earth are you guys working?
In 5 years of teaching in Bangkok, where there are loads of dodgy teachers I didn't come across that stuff.
One concerning thing here is that chocolate is pronounced 'choc-o-late' in Standard English (I have been trained in voice and speech coaching and phonetics, as well as English teaching). Your daughter missed out the middle syllable; the colloquial 'day to day' way of saying it. Whilst this is acceptable in day-to-day conversation, when speaking formally the 3 syllable method is actually the correct one.
I cannot, however, fathom why the teacher would give her a 0 for her class based on saying something in the everyday manner. For the purposes of the class it seems draconian.