Teaching has been my dream job since I was a child. During nearly 3 decades of being a teacher, there have been ups and downs, joys and sorrows, but I have never been as afraid of doing my job as I am now.
I feel that the teaching profession is no longer respected. Society, parents and students all throw heavy stones of pressure at us.
The obsession of teachers in the 4.0 era
This morning, when I arrived at school, some of my colleagues passed around a video clip, news of a group of students in Tuyen Quang behaving unethically and inappropriately towards a female teacher. After watching it, my hands and feet turned cold, my heart pounded. If I were the teacher in the video, I would have been helpless, standing by and watching, not daring to do anything else.
A secondary school student in Tuyen Quang threw a sandal at a teacher's head, causing him to faint. (Photo cut from clip)
Fortunately, the video recorded the whole story. If there was only a scene of a student lying on the ground, throwing a tantrum and screaming that she was being beaten, then this teacher might have gone from being the victim to becoming the subject of criticism from the whole society.
The video made many people angry, commenting “if it were me, I would kick them/ the students are just waking up and being rude/ why don’t you give them a slap in the face when you’re such a kind teacher…”. However, few people understand that teachers nowadays have no power, are not allowed to criticize, are not allowed to teach, if they touch a single hair of a student, parents will rush to the school, consider us as criminals, and torture their children.
Seeing our female colleagues being pushed into the corner of the classroom, standing there helplessly, not daring to do anything, was understandable. The cameras, the scolding from parents and social media users made us learn to hide in our shells for safety.
“If you want to cross the bridge, you must build it. If you want your children to be well-educated, you must love their teachers.” Every time I hear someone mention this folk song, my heart aches. It seems that modern society has forgotten the courtesy towards those who teach and train their children.
In addition to the fear of students editing clips to post one-sided information online, I also fear being assaulted by the very students I teach every day.
Teacher My Tran
Now, when we teach, we not only have to worry about professional matters and records, but also about the reactions of students and parents. Whenever any incident happens and is posted by students or someone else on social media, all the blame is on us.
Teachers are deprived of the right to criticize students because society considers it a form of ridicule, uneducational behavior, and creates resentment and opposition. I don’t know how uneducational it is, but many generations of my former students have been “suffered” by this, yet they still grow up, succeed, and remember me with greetings during holidays.
In the past, I punished students a lot, they were very scared but absolutely no one hated their teacher and of course there was never any disrespect to teachers like today. Perhaps the behavior considered “uneducational” is not really “uneducational” and the opposite is also true for some behaviors considered standard education.
Parents unconditionally defend their children, saying that even minor skin injuries or low grades are the teacher's fault, because the teacher "curses" them, because the teacher is not attentive or caring... I am lucky that in my teaching career I have not encountered any cases where parents make things difficult, but many of my colleagues have.
A teacher at my old school, in a fit of anger, could not control himself and used harsh words on a student. The student's parents found out and made a scene in the principal's office, accusing the teacher of bullying and affecting their child's psychology.
In the end, the teacher was criticized for his unprofessional behavior towards his students. Besides him, I know of many other cases where he had to be demoted, transferred to another job, or even forced to quit his job due to similar mistakes.
Who will protect us?
Image of a group of students cornering a female teacher and continuously insulting her. (Photo cut from clip)
As teachers, we always train ourselves to adjust our behavior to the standards, but the more we train, the more society forces us into a dead end. Perhaps the image of the teacher in Tuyen Quang being forced into the corner of the classroom by students will become a haunting image forever.
We teachers are also human, also burdened with the burden of making a living with the pressure of making a living, the pressure of work, and the inevitable harsh words and blame for bad students. This temporary anger will result in a more strict and condemned society. As for students who commit wrongdoings, no matter how unacceptable their behavior is, they are always easily forgiven because they are young and immature.
Like in the case of the secondary school students in Son Duong (Tuyen Quang), who will stand up to protect the teacher and what are we allowed to do to protect ourselves? After this incident, in addition to the fear of students filming and editing clips to post one-sided information online, I also fear being assaulted by the students I teach every day.
“Respecting teachers is a distant dream now, just try to be content and wait until retirement”, the words of a colleague before being transferred after losing control over a student’s rude behavior made me feel sad. Is our teaching profession so scary now?
My Tran (Teacher)
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