Miss Amanda, an Australian teacher now in her 60s, was confronted by her eleven-year-old student every lesson, being asked if she was a “gooner” or did “goon” – a colloquialism for self-abuse. Such an incident and numerous other occasions beg the question as to whether our children are overly cocooned, so much so that the protection of teachers is neglected. From my stance, parental overindulgence and humorous content on the Internet that the young are exposed to have failed educators to an alarming extent.
To begin with, as parents overly pamper their young ones, teachers would be subjected to students’ misbehaviour in the classrooms. All too often, many parents, mainly those in Asian countries, may avoid disciplining their children, especially in public, and instead blame those affected even if they did nothing wrong, as they might believe that their beloved kids are too childish to be held accountable. It is precisely this lack of disciplinary guidance that makes most children internalise a sense of entitlement, blurring the line between what is acceptable and what is not. Such an attitude can easily translate into disrespect in the classroom, as evidenced in the case of the “assaulted” Miss Amanda in Australia, leading to her and other educators leaving the profession due to their intolerance of such misconduct.
Another contributor to teachers not being protected is the jocular content to which young students are exposed online. For example, schoolgoers may be no stranger to the meme that ridicules teachers’ literary analyses in general, suggesting that such dissections overexaggerate the author’s original intentions. With growing interest in this belief, amplified by their sense of entitlement, many students may be so audacious as to cast their doubts on their teachers’ expertise, citing frivolous phrases they acquired on social media platforms such as “It’s not that deep” or “Bro is going too far.” While these moments of light-heartedness can be necessary to relieve the classroom tension, the distinction between joyfulness and frivolity can be easily blurred. This is substantiated when the young generation are too confined to their technological devices to be able to discern such a nuance. Teachers, as a result, report higher job dissatisfaction and demotivation to make further contributions to their ‘ironically’ rewarding profession.
In conclusion, the majority of teachers have borne the brunt of youth irreverence, which stems from the lack of parental discipline, and the online frivolous content that students see. To rectify the situation, a concerted effort is crucial, requiring not only adults to adopt a less laissez-faire approach to parenting, but also schools to enforce stricter regulations.