Are teachers really second parents?

(This week, this column guests Jesusa Yadao, one of the breed of educators who daily serve in our public school classrooms. As School Head Teacher in Charge at the Bakakeng Norte National High School, Ms. Yadao is among those who help mould our children into the citizens they become. Her piece follows.)

TEACHERS often encounter difficulties in handling different kinds of learners. There are learners whom we call problems and there are learners with problems or misbehaviours. What are the reasons that students misbehave? In order to fully understand why students misbehave, teachers should look deeper into the students’ worlds, into their own domains, into the realms of their colleagues and into the worlds of parents.

Teachers must base lessons or activities on the levels of the learners that are aligned with the K12 curriculum. Teachers are even forced to deal with difficult co-workers.

Parents, on the other hand, are often confronted with different responsibilities at home, like dealing with children with different personalities. At times, parents are also challenged with marital issues and financial issues that they have to deal with everyday. Hence, their children become affected. Because of these issues at home, students can tend to be distracted. As a result, they find it difficult to cope with multiple requirements in school and they have a hard time managing their priorities. Most of them have behavioural issues that affect school performance.

Teachers are not supposed to be labelled “second parents” to students. Because of the belief that they should be, parents become dependent on teachers, even to discipline the children. Often, parents are heard telling the advisers of their children, “Bahala na kayo sa anak ko” or suko na kami sa batang ‘yan, bahala na kayo sa kanya.”

Students’ misbehaviour is a call for help. Sometimes when they do not understand the lesson, they act out to cover this incapacity. There are underlying issues why students act out, so instead of confronting them in front of other students, talk to them privately and try to find out what causes their misdemeanour.

The partnership between the school and the home is very crucial in the development of a child. Therefore, both institutions should do their part in moulding these children so that they grow up to be positive potentials in society, and not threats.