Student Disrespect for Teachers: Causes and Effects

In Hindu Mythology, the relationship between a student and teacher is considered to

be the most important association in a persons life. In ancient India, a teacher was
considered the most important in a persons life after his parents. This importance
was justified because the path a person chose later in his life was largely accredited
to the type of teacher and the teachings he received. Things have changed
drastically in the present times and so has the relationship between a student and
teacher. Student disrespect for teachers has become very common and can be
found in every school all around the world. A student can show disrespect for his
teacher in two ways-direct or indirect. Direct disrespect is blatantly flouting rules
and openly showing disregard for the teacher. Students showing this kind of
behavior often verbally abuse teachers in front of other students to belittle them.
Indirect disrespect is secretly rebelling against what the teacher is teaching them.
This includes not paying any attention to whatever the teacher wants to convey
through his teaching. This kind of disrespect is difficult to detect if the teacher is not
paying enough attention to his students. Often the person openly flouting rules is
considered to be disrespectful but indirect disrespect causes more harm because it
is often not detected and therefore cannot be corrected.

To correct the prevalent misbehavior towards teachers, it is important to understand

what causes this disrespect. According to psychologists, the causes can vary but the
most important cause as pointed out in many studies is because the student does
not accept the teachers behavior towards his students or his way of teaching. As
Albert Einstein once stated-Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability
to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Many teachers fail
to understand that each child is different and therefore what may be easy for one
student to grasp might not be easy for the other student to grasp. Teachers need to
pay attention and be more aware their students are responding to their teachings
and provide personalize learning wherever required. Teacher bullying is also one of
the problems to consider in some cases as reported in many studies. In an
anonymous survey conducted of 116 teachers in seven schools by Stuart Twemlow,
MD, psychiatrist, forty five percent of the teachers admitted to bullying a student.
The student who gets bullied naturally looses any respect for teachers and he either
rebels or withdraws away completely. This has a huge negative impact on the
students emotional development and therefore bullying is a problem that needs to
be corrected. Another negative way the teachers behave is by taking out their
frustrations of their personal lives on the students. Frequently displaying their
irritation and frustrations on students leads to an unhealthy relationship which in
turn causes disrespect.

It will be unfair to say that the whole blame lies on the teachers. Often the students
are to blame for their untoward behavior towards the teachers. Students who come
from broken, improvised or unstable families may take out their frustrations by
lashing out at the teachers. The type of upbringing a child receives has an impact
on his psyche and emotional development. Neglected or abused students often lash
out and rebel due to the amount of pressure they are in. Teachers need to be careful
in dealing with such students and it is important to assert their authority in front of
such students who are intentionally looking forward to provoking them. To quote a
teacher on Quora on how she deals with disrespect-I, more often than not, chose
working in very poor districts - meaning Ive taught gang members, dropout or at
risk students, unwed teenage mothers, violent or troubled teens, etc. Never, and I
mean never, did I allow anyone to be disrespectful toward me or my students. Why
on earth should the classroom be any different from basic civilities demanded by
society at large? As to how I felt, I felt anger or calmness. (Though I did try
suppressing the anger, I am sure it came out in the tone of my voice.) Also, I would
not respond to a student calling me anything other than Miss, Ms, Maam or Mrs.
Valera. Admittingly, this practice felt weird when I first started. However, this was an
essential step toward the kids seeing me as the head honcho.

Compared to other challenges I met, a disrespectful attitude had a surprisingly easy

fix. Simply put, I treated my students as I expect to be treated. This meant dropping
my ego, focusing in and listening. Sometimes, I would mimic the behavior I wanted
from the student until s/he dropped their own ego and returned the favor. For
example, I successfully used this technique on towering boy-men trying to
intimidate me. Sometimes, I would straight up ask (coax, browbeat, pull teeth or
whatever until I got my answer) how s/he wanted to be treated if they perceived I
was being disrespectful toward them. After all, respect is a two way street. Of
course, I am speaking generally; not everyone is reachable.

A poor relationship between the teacher and student gives rise to an unhealthy
atmosphere in the classrooms which is not productive for learning. An environment
of distrust and animosity affects other students in the classrooms who have nothing
to do with the fight going on between the teacher and the delinquent student. Many
teachers may feel victimized and end up quitting the profession altogether. Others
may end up taking a more aggressive approach towards the student responsible
and this might make the situation even worse. Learning needs a disciplined and
healthy environment and therefore it is important to address this issue to limit the
growing unruly behavior in our classrooms.