Blaming
Teachers
Principals Not Enforcing Discipline
By Daniel Muniz
One particular frustration for an educator is that they are often
required to enforce discipline on behavior that they have absolutely
no control over. Although teachers do need to have more authority in
the classroom, it is truly disturbing that an educator can actually
be held personally responsible for the actions and the inappropriate
conduct of the students in their classroom. And it is totally
irrelevant that there is no way possible of them ever being able to
control or even prevent the bad behavior of their students.
For instance, suppose a female student decides to wear a mini
skirt that is way too short or a tight top with a plunging neckline
that exposes the cleavage of her bulging breasts. If a teacher
writes up that student and sends her to the principal’s office for
violating the dress code, the school officials may then end up
blaming and reprimanding the educator. It wasn’t the teacher’s fault
that a kid broke the rules but the educator may very well end up
being penalized for it and perhaps get accused of not being able to
control the classroom.
The same thing also happens for a huge list of other infractions.
Suppose a student misses too many days of school with unexcused
absences or that he or she doesn’t want to try hard enough to study
for tests that result in failing grades. Perhaps a kid decides to
behave in an unacceptable manner. The hasty assumption from
administrators is that it is the teacher’s fault. And in some cases,
it is completely irrelevant that the student was personally
responsible for the flagrant violation, like never turning in any
homework. All too often, it is the educator who is going to be held
accountable and the scolded for it.
As a result of this negative reinforcement, some educators have
quickly wised up on this perverse incentive.
They simply ignore some of their student’s infractions,
especially the ones that they can get away with. Ignoring the
violation allows the teacher to avoid receiving any punishment from
their bosses.
For example, if a kid decides to wears a shirt with an obscene
message on it to school, the educator will simply pay no attention
to that action even though it is a violation of the dress code. The
student enjoys flouting the rules and beating the system while the
teacher escapes getting punished for it. In a perverse way, both of
them benefit.
Some teachers have even stopped assigning homework because they
know that some kids will refuse to do it. Oftentimes, an educator
will end up looking bad to his or her principal because a number of
their pupils have failing grades even though the fault lies solely
with the child. Again, a student is practically rewarded for
slacking off and the teacher avoids the reprimand; thus both of them
benefit.
It is blatantly absurd for an administrator to penalize an
educator for something like this but it happens all the time.
In a convoluted form of logic, it is the teacher’s fault because
a student wore inappropriate clothes to school or never bothered to
turn in any homework or did not want to study for any tests. What is
most troubling is that these actions are the solely the decisions of
the students. They don’t have anything to do with a teacher or with
teaching. Yet it will be the educator who will be admonished for
someone else’s bad behavior.
In essence, the educational leadership of many of our schools has
abdicated their responsibilities and failed to provide sound methods
of management.
They are punishing teachers who are completely innocent. Instead
of enforcing discipline and maintaining order among the student
body, administrators have created a system of perverse incentives
that actually rewards bad behavior. These bad principals have also
created a sense of fear among their faculty that has allowed the
quality of a good education to erode while influencing kids break
the rules and to continue in their unacceptable conduct.
Unfortunately, it is easy to blame teachers. Everybody does it.
Politicians, parents, principals, and certain segments of society
have oftentimes pinned culpability on educators for too many things
that they are not truly responsible for.
It is time for people to grow up.
More parents need to be held accountable because the actions of
their children happen to be their child’s decisions. If their
children are punished, then don’t blame the teachers for it. It
wasn’t the educator who did the bad behavior.
But most importantly, it is time for the educational leadership
to do the same. If it is the child’s fault for unacceptable or
deplorable conduct then principals should fully reprimand the
student (and perhaps their parents) and allow teachers to get back
to their teaching without fear of any repercussions.
And finally, society has to grow up too.
If children have made the conscious decision to refuse to study
or to refuse to turn in their homework or to refuse to follow the
rules, then so be it. Don’t blame the school, the principal, or an
educator for a child’s bad behavior. Some kids need more help with
academics and others need more discipline but that is not the
school’s fault when it happens. Society needs to allow the chips to
fall where they may so that our education system can correct the
deficiencies and go on teaching our children.
It is time to stop the blame game. Perhaps more involvement from
the community will help the vicious cycle of administrators blaming
their faculty for the misdeeds of students.
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