post #6

Disclaimer: Before I go off on a rant about teachers, I just wanted to say that some of the teachers I've had are the most inspiring, caring people I've been blessed to meet. I will not be revealing the name, or even the gender of this teacher. I just needed to get this off my chest.

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The day a teacher talks about a student behind his or her back is the day they completely lose their integrity. Sadly, I have witnessed this multiple times, and recently I have seen it firsthand, with my own eyes and ears.

I really can't describe my anger, and feeling of betrayal. I wasn't even the student who was insulted. I'm not sure why I'm taking it to heart as much as I am. Maybe it's the fact that I've been judged before, and I know how it feels. The fact that a teacher would make a blatantly rude comment about a student to another teacher just completely blows my mind. Teachers are there for the well-being of their students, not the downfall.

Now, they may just be teachers. They may just be doing their job for the money, not for the love of children and whatnot. But honestly, talking about your students negatively is a whole new level of low.

So this student isn't necessarily a friend of mine. Maybe I don't go out of my way to be her best friend. But I certainly do not whisper about her supposed oddities to my best friend. That's just rude. I wouldn't like people talking about me in that way, so I don't do it to others. After this student was done talking to her teacher, this teacher had the audacity to turn to a fellow teacher and whisper, "She's so weird."

I don't know if I'm blowing all of this out of proportion. I don't know if writing an entire blog post about my feelings is necessary. But when I heard those words leave that teacher's lips, and the blank, twisted face they were wearing, anger consumed me so fully that I didn't know how to speak. This is a teacher, a grown-up! I'd expect it from a student. I've experienced it from a student. This teacher told us on the first day of school that they loved teaching, loved children, loved their students. Maybe calling a student "weird" is their way of showing their appreciation.

I highly doubt that.

I really hope this isn't how the entire faculty acts. I hope my views on teachers are skewed. I'd hate to think that the people who are teaching me, giving me knowledge, were also lying, judgmental gossipers.

This whole experience, seeing the situation unfold, taught me that even the people you look up to, the older, wiser ones, aren't who they say. One more name crossed off the list of people I can trust.