A tale of two teachers

Two teachers have been thrust into the limelight recently, and not for the right reasons.

The first, a public high school teacher, was recorded berating students who had allegedly been disrespectful of her, while the second, a college lecturer, actually encouraged his own students to commit suicide.

“Hindi ako nag-board exam para lang hindi i-respeto ng mga katulad niyong wala pa namang nararating sa buhay. Ang kakapal ng mga mukha niyo, hindi niyo nga kaya buhayin mga sarili niyo... Magboard-exam din kayo para malaman niyo kung hanggang saan lang kayo… hindi na nga kayo matalino eh, sama pa ng ugali ninyo,” the first teacher was recorded as saying.

Of the first teacher, we can understand the source of her frustration. We now see younger people today who no longer ask for forgiveness when they run into others, who speak sharply back at their parents, and who no longer respect even people their age, let alone those older. These are youths who don’t seem to have been brought up with GMRC: Good Manners and Right Conduct.

Any teacher worth his or her salt knows how to berate students when they get out of line. However, this still does not excuse the hurtful words she said. She could have scolded them in another way without necessarily insulting their intelligence or telling them that they will amount to nothing.

Of the second teacher, there is no excuse. While it can be said that someone will have to be an idiot to commit suicide just because he or she was told to do so, we cannot deny that words can drive people to action, especially the words of a supposed authority figure, in this case a teacher.

If it was his attempt at dark humor then it wasn’t funny at all. If he was trying to be sarcastic then it was totally out of place. Under no circumstance should you suggest someone commit suicide, especially those who happen to be very impressionable.

We hope that these two are not a reflection of the overall quality of teachers we have. Because that would mean aside from the poor quality of education and the poor leadership DepEd has, we have another problem looming.