In recent decades, whether high school students should be free to evaluate and criticize their educators has evolved into a major topic of concern. While some people think that disrespect and indiscipline are an unavoidable outcome of this approach, there are stronger reasons why it would result in increased educational quality.
On the one hand, there is a common belief that enabling students to judge teachers may undermine students’ sense of respect and discipline. This is primarily because some high school students are generally immature and inexperienced. Therefore, some of them tend to lose their temper and overreact each time they are disciplined by teachers. The problem can be further exacerbated when all the students see their peers criticizing the teachers. They may think of such action as the right way to behave and start to imitate it. As a result, respect for the teacher may be lost and the classroom learning environment may be detrimentally affected.
On the other hand, I side with those who believe that giving students the total freedom in expressing their thoughts and feelings towards teachers may enhance educational quality. To explain, many countries are promoting student-centered teaching with two-way communication, where open discussions between teachers and students on any topics, including teaching methodology and the effectiveness of the teaching program, are encouraged. This approach has a clear advantage of making students become proactive in studying. It also provides teachers with a chance to better their pedagogical skills by receiving feedback from students. In this way, both the learners and the educators can achieve higher academically.
In conclusion, the educational method of encouraging high school students to judge their teachers will undoubtedly lead to enhanced academic achievements, despite the possibility that some classes may experience some initial instability in the form of disrespect or lack of discipline.