Teachers and discipline

Arvind Mani, Waila, Nadi

The chief executive officer of National Substance Abuse Advisory Council, Manoa Senikarawa, made the claim that teachers face issues with class management because they are not taught how to discipline students. He said if disciplining students was not taught, teachers often fall back to how they were disciplined while growing up and sometimes that leads to corporal punishment. As a former teacher, I can state that nothing is further from the truth. If teachers are not smart enough to have learnt from their own experiences and cannot discern the right from wrong, are they fit to assume such an important responsibility? Teachers have absolute control over what goes on every day within the four walls of their classrooms. Regardless of the outside forces, regardless of home lives, regardless of what is or is not going on in the front office, it is the teacher who controls what goes on every day in the classroom. But why don't students just behave? Well, the fact remains that we teach children and children do child-like things. They don't make adult-like decisions; they don't do what is necessarily right or best for them; they like to push our buttons and they are not, mostly, self-motivated or self-disciplined. That's why they need teachers! A speaker was addressing a group of teachers and one teacher raised her hand and said: “Well all those things you are saying are fine, well and good. And maybe your suggestions would work with some students but you don't understand. I have no parental support, and it's impossible to teach these students when their parents are not backing me.” The speaker asked a simple question, “So you say that if an orphanage opened next door to this school tomorrow, you could not teach those children?” A hush fell over the audience and over that teacher. They might. But they are still reachable and teachable. Just as reaching the summit of the mountain before you can stand on it, and just as have to reach your vacation's destination before you can do your sightseeing, you have to reach a student before you can teach him/her. Each student brings his/her own set of issues, his/her own dreams, his/her own strengths, his/her own shortcomings, his/her own abilities, and his/her own lack of abilities. But we believe that each child is someone special. Each child deserves a chance, and then a second one and a third, and a fourth. Each child deserves a teacher who believes in him/her. When the student knows that a teacher believes in him/her and cares for him/her and builds his/her self-esteem, there will be no discipline problems. And if teachers cannot do that at all times, then they must seriously ask themselves, Is this the right profession for me?.

■ Arvind Mani, will receive a Philips Daily Collection 1.25L Blender with MIL as our May Letter of the Week winner (Week 4). His letter was published on May 25, 2018.