Teacher Throws Desk and Yells at Students — What Should We Make of This?

let's talk about the high school teacher that i'm sure you've seen on social media who threw the desk and screamed at students about being disrespectful i like i definitely understand where this guy is coming from and feel for him in dealing with the disrespect from students and i think Teachers need a certain amount of power in their classrooms to do their jobs, right?

I think one of the problems that we have in so many schools today is that students can act with impunity.

They don't really have to respect the teacher's authority because they know nothing's going to happen to them.

Their parents are not going to do anything.

Their principal is not going to do anything to them.

There are no real consequences.

And, you know, we have to wonder, like, what position are we really putting adults in when they're responsible for students?

They're responsible for student learning, but they don't have any power to do anything when the student is disrespectful, when the student is disrupting the learning environment.

And I don't know the situation.

So I don't want to defend anybody, you know, too much or be too critical of anybody here.

But I think it's a good wake up call for us.

that teachers need power, right?

As a teacher, you need authority in your classroom.

And if a student is undermining that authority, maybe they're talking under their breath and being disrespectful, maybe they're cussing you out, I don't know, whatever it may be, you need some recourse.

You need some authority to maintain legitimacy in that environment.

And when we repeatedly take away teachers' power, when we say, you can't give detention anymore, you can't give Saturday school anymore, you can't do anything really, and the parents aren't gonna do anything either, then it's no wonder that people reach their limit, that people blow their top and just say, I've had enough and are willing to even kind of self-destruct their career to some extent in frustration because what else are they going to do?

There's no apparent way out.

So I think we've got to give people the tools they need to do their job.

And that includes a certain amount of power.

And people often complain, oh, power goes to teachers' heads.

I'm like, Honestly, I'm not worried about that.

I am not worried about power going to teachers' heads.

People would have better things to do with their lives than go on power trips with students.

So let me know what you think about this.

Do you have the power that you need to do your job?

And if not, what would that look like for you to be empowered in the way that you need to, to command student respect, to follow through with consequences when students are not doing what they need to?

Let me know.