The recent case, wherein a student shouted vulgarities at a teacher, is a very telling sign that we are nurturing a pontential nation of 'Little Emperrors'.
So much so called "rights", have been accorded to students that they are now brazen and even violent towards teachers.
I feel that policies that are in need of changes were not changed, while policies that shouldn't be changed were changed. In the end, I fear we may have a mis-shapened society of future generations; highly intelligent and well educated, BUT, low on EQ and in possession of a calculative nature and a sharp offensive tongue.
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Educators and parents mixed over teacher's reaction
July 27, 2006
WAS the teacher's demand for a published apology too much?
Some educators and parents feel the teacher might have overreacted.
Others feel that given the boy's history of being a repeat offender, he needed to be taught a lesson.
Said one junior college teacher, who declined to be named: 'If the family concerned is poor, then demanding a published apology in the newspapers would be punishing the family rather than the boy.'
She added that since the boy was a repeat offender, the school should have informed his parents during previous incidents that a further offence could result in a heavier punishment.
However, she felt that the teacher's punishment could have been too harsh.
'What does the teacher hope to achieve? If she had made it a police case, the student could have ended up with a police record just for using vulgarities,' she said.
However, a parent The New Paper spoke to felt the teacher's demand was justified.
Said Mr Samuel Owen, 51, who has a teenage son: 'It seems harsh on the surface, but the student appears to be a repeat offender who has been warned, but who still persisted with the same behaviour.
'He needs to realise that life has certain constraints and we all have to live by certain rules.'
A secondary school teacher who has dealt with similar cases said he would have handled the situation differently.
He said: 'I would try to find a way to help the student - it could involve suspension or other rehabilitative measures.
'But the most important thing is to get the parents involved, because these problem students might be facing circumstances outside school that the school has no control over.'