SOME SCHOOLS now operate as therapy centers. I am not downgrading the importance of mentoring and helping students about their problems. In fact, students today need it more, especially that social media platforms have been destroying their brain.
But to expect that teachers must NEVER hurt the feelings of students or must avoid AT ALL COST to make them feel sad or depressed, is asking the teachers to not teach at all. You cannot simply teach and at the same time accommodate and adjust your lesson plans to the feelings and varied personal conditions of your students.
Learning is tough. Growth is painful. Life is full of mistakes and disappointments. The world is unfair—even cruel.
1. Laziness hiding in the guise of mental depression.
This can be a generational phenomenon. But it can also be created, unintentionally, by the environment.
I learned that a human being can be very deceptive. A person will use his or her fragility against someone who is willing to carry the burden because of eventual guilt. Nowadays, to discipline a person involves the risk of being accused of being insensitive.
You are not anymore allowed to teach a person how to fish if that person cares a lot about the feelings of fishes or has a fear of water. Instead, you are now obligated to give that person a fish and must provide for his or her sustenance.
2. Emotional hurt as a valid excuse to be exempted from the “unfairness” of life.
The dilemma of some teachers is a crisis that will destroy the essence of true learning. Of course, I am not supporting the use of physical abuse as a tool of teaching. Neither am I recommending verbal insults to awaken the students about the realities of life.
But to tiptoe our way around so as not to hurt anyone and everyone about anything and everything AND at the same time to teach life skills, is counterproductive and counterintuitive.
Will you fail a student who faints at the sight of blood but he or she dreams to become a doctor?
Will you pass a student who wants to be a soldier but fears gunfire?
Will you scold a student who committed a serious misdemeanor?
3. Train your children to be tough…because the world doesn’t really give a damn.
Some parents will not accept the reality that the use of cellphone or the exposure of their children to social media has negative consequences. In a sense, parental authority must now be asserted not only by authoritarian force but by parental example.
To learn is to ponder. To learn is to think for a long period of time without the urge of looking at the cellphone. To some children, this is impossible. To some parents, this is not valuable.
And worse, some parents entrust everything to the school. And at the same time, would blame the school for something that should have been addressed at home.
Eventually, teachers will get tired of being told to teach well and at the same time of being asked to explain why some students fail in their subjects.
Whether we admit it or not, there is such a thing as collateral damage. There will always be winners and losers. Supposedly, school-learning is a preparation for the real world. And the real world is not based on feelings. It is based on survival of the fittest./PN
