Are Teachers Verbally Abusing Our Students? And Getting Away with It? - Merit Educational Consultants

Are Teachers Verbally Abusing Our Students? And Getting Away with It?

As a college advisor, I spend my days talking to students. We talk about their classes, study strategies, their lives, and their dreams. I love looking at the world through their eyes and hearing how they justify their actions. I find their stories amusing, and quite frankly, I think it keeps me young. But over the past couple of years, I’ve heard some disturbing stories from the students about their classroom teachers who have verbally abused them in front of their classmates.

Before I launch into the students’ statements, I want to say that all of the teachers I know, and especially the Merit Academy teachers, are caring and remarkable.

They instill the love of learning and their passion for their subjects is contagious. Teachers are underpaid and unappreciated.  After dealing with pressure from parents to hand out A’s and from administration for policies that make it hard for them to do what they love to do: teach children, I’m surprised teachers stay in this field at all.

Back when I entered education 37 years ago, teachers named reading groups the Bluebirds and Robins, just to make sure that children wouldn’t know how they ranked in the class.  Naturally, all of the kids knew that the Robins were the smarter than the Bludbirds, but the teachers went through great effort to make every student comfortable and encouraged. That’s why I don’t understand what’s happening in the classrooms today. 

Just last month, one of my gentle and sweet 16-year old students “Jake” told me that he was dropping his Spanish class. He told me that he couldn’t take it anymore and refused to be in Mrs. X‘s class.  When I inquired further, I was appalled that any teacher, or human being, would ever degrade a student who was struggling.  Jake was working with a Merit Spanish tutor to fill in the gaps so he could catch up in class.  When he asked her for help to prepare for the final exam, in front of his entire class, Mrs. X said, “Why? You’re going to do shit on the test.” GASP! What teacher uses “shit” in class and why would she condemn him for asking for help?  Then, when Jake walked up to the front of the class to give his Spanish presentation, Mrs. X said, “Pray for this to be over!” Seriously? 

Then just last week, another one of students faced similar harassment from his middle school math teacher. “Joe” has learning disabilities and math is difficult for him.  After the teacher presented a new lesson to the class and gave them time in class to start their homework, Joe raised his hand and asked the teacher for help on his equation. Instead of helping Joe on the problem, the teacher said, “I can’t answer that question; you need to be more specific.” A good teacher might have responded with “Where are you getting lost?” or “Let’s see what you’ve done so far…”.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that Joe will not be raising his hand in class again.  Other students in the class have commented on how the teacher answers their questions but that he is really mean to Joe.

The parents of both of these boys have approached their school’s administration to stop this abuse.  Mrs. X told the VP that Jake’s statement was not true and that she doesn’t recall it taking place. REALLY? He was so mad that he wanted to meet with her to look her straight in the eyes and ask her why she lied to the VP.  He’s also considered having the students in the class sign a petition stating that they heard Mrs. X‘s remarks.  Joe’s mother is meeting with the special ed teachers to get him out of that class.

Are these freak coincidences, or is verbal abuse a new trend in the classroom?