A Teacher Calls His Student A "Loser"
A teacher is being investigated for calling his sixth grade student a "loser," not once but repeatedly. Her offense? She misspelled a few words on her essay. The teacher circled the words and wrote "loser" on her assignment.
This is not a story from a third world country, but rather it happened in Enka Middle School in North Carolina.
When it happened for the first time in the fall, Patty Clement, the girl's mother, complained to the school principal. The comments stopped for a while, but resumed again later. Clement got an apology from the teacher when she protested. The teacher nevertheless defended himself calling this his "unique style of teaching."
Additionally, he demonstrated his intimidating disciplinary method by throwing a pencil box on the floor and administrating other harsh punishments for incidents that he found offending. The strange part of the story is many parents of the Enka Middle School support the teacher’s actions.
Being raised in India, I have personally experienced being bullied by teachers. I have also heard of cases where students have died at the hands of overzealous disciplinary teachers. Albeit, even in India, rules have been set in place now against such teaching methods.
Crime and punishment need not be the rule to discipline students. We have evolved through eons and have learned of better techniques to coach and counsel children. Bullying by teachers affects students negatively and it sets many for failures, especially those who have sensitive personalities.
It seems a teacher should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of child psychology before stepping into a classroom.
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