rant#50031 :: fkin lack of discipline
this is something i scribbled down this morning at work after the morning staff meeting at Otsu J.H.S., although i`m going to inadvertently add some things while typing it up.
Japan`s educational system pisses off and confuses me so bad sometimes... but right now, i`m just flatout pissed.
there`s a teacher at Otsu that`s new. she just started in August because one of the teachers is out on maternity leave. this teacher gets bullied and threatened by students so much on a regular basis that it`s just gotten to the point that it really, REALLY pisses me off. this rant/blurb has been a long time in coming.
i`ve witnessed how a class of 1st years treat her repeatedly because she always "team teaches" (its not really team teaching) the class with me and one of the JTEs. certain students repeatedly call her offensive names aloud and the whole class laughs every time. when the teacher is running late to the class a certain student asks if she`s dead and many students find this funny somehow. then when the teacher`s there, the same student tells her repeatedly to die and go away. this is a repeated thing, not a once in a while thing. often when she tries to help other students they seem to give her a lot more of a cold shoulder/cold response than they would were it another teacher. the previously mentioned "certain" student, who is a problem student in generally but whom i have never seen be this rude or physical with other teachers, also throws stuff at the teacher and approaches her in a physically threatening manner sometimes if she comes within a certain vicinity of his desk or if she says something to him, even if it`s just to tell him to take notes.
these are just things i witness first hand from ONE class, she is treated like shit by other classes/students as well. last week she was in tears in the staff room telling other teachers something students had done to her and now it was announced at the staff meeting this morning that she had been bitten by a student on friday. BITTEN BY A STUDENT. apparently there was a parent-teacher conference held and the student was made to apologize to the teacher and it seems like the principle & vice principle is going to have a meeting with the parents or something later today, but seriously what kind of discipline is that??? that`s hardly discipline at all.
BECAUSE IN JAPAN, TEACHERS CANT DISCIPLINE STUDENTS IN ELEMENTARY OR JR HIGH SCHOOL.
i`ve said this before, but i`ll say it again. teachers aren`t allowed to fail, suspend, hold back or do anything else to students, the most they can do is hold a conference/meeting with parents, hold "consoling" sessions with students (= what happens when, say, a student breaks a window) and yell at/lecture the class in the middle of a lesson. basically, teachers are pretty much powerless.
i`ve also said this before, but i feel like repeating it too out of exasperation:
japan`s whole public educational system is a fkin mess.
(not to say that Japan`s is the only one, of course.)
not only do teachers have problems with bullying, it`s a big problem among students as well. but since teachers are essentially powerless to effectively prevent/stop such things... not only can they hardly protect themselves should students attempt to pull crap on them, it`s also hard for them to help students who are subject to bullying. and yes, students in every country get bullied, but Japan is an extreme case of such.
students getting bullied aside, TEACHERS suffering from bullying too is something that was completely unimaginable to me before i came to Japan and i wish that that was still the case. teachers being bullied, threatened, etc is something that should NOT happen. that`s something that should NOT have to be tolerated AT ALL by teachers in my eyes. NO teacher should have to have as much tolerance as Japanese teachers are forced to have. they should NOT have to subject themselves to daily humiliation on account of students when they come to work everyday.
every country has a faulty educational system and i`m sure plenty are beyond faulty and are fked up like Japan`s, but god... Japan`s system seems to be royally fked in a unique way.
being an ALT thrown into such a fked up, foreign system is hard...
Japan`s educational system pisses off and confuses me so bad sometimes... but right now, i`m just flatout pissed.
there`s a teacher at Otsu that`s new. she just started in August because one of the teachers is out on maternity leave. this teacher gets bullied and threatened by students so much on a regular basis that it`s just gotten to the point that it really, REALLY pisses me off. this rant/blurb has been a long time in coming.
i`ve witnessed how a class of 1st years treat her repeatedly because she always "team teaches" (its not really team teaching) the class with me and one of the JTEs. certain students repeatedly call her offensive names aloud and the whole class laughs every time. when the teacher is running late to the class a certain student asks if she`s dead and many students find this funny somehow. then when the teacher`s there, the same student tells her repeatedly to die and go away. this is a repeated thing, not a once in a while thing. often when she tries to help other students they seem to give her a lot more of a cold shoulder/cold response than they would were it another teacher. the previously mentioned "certain" student, who is a problem student in generally but whom i have never seen be this rude or physical with other teachers, also throws stuff at the teacher and approaches her in a physically threatening manner sometimes if she comes within a certain vicinity of his desk or if she says something to him, even if it`s just to tell him to take notes.
these are just things i witness first hand from ONE class, she is treated like shit by other classes/students as well. last week she was in tears in the staff room telling other teachers something students had done to her and now it was announced at the staff meeting this morning that she had been bitten by a student on friday. BITTEN BY A STUDENT. apparently there was a parent-teacher conference held and the student was made to apologize to the teacher and it seems like the principle & vice principle is going to have a meeting with the parents or something later today, but seriously what kind of discipline is that??? that`s hardly discipline at all.
BECAUSE IN JAPAN, TEACHERS CANT DISCIPLINE STUDENTS IN ELEMENTARY OR JR HIGH SCHOOL.
i`ve said this before, but i`ll say it again. teachers aren`t allowed to fail, suspend, hold back or do anything else to students, the most they can do is hold a conference/meeting with parents, hold "consoling" sessions with students (= what happens when, say, a student breaks a window) and yell at/lecture the class in the middle of a lesson. basically, teachers are pretty much powerless.
i`ve also said this before, but i feel like repeating it too out of exasperation:
japan`s whole public educational system is a fkin mess.
(not to say that Japan`s is the only one, of course.)
not only do teachers have problems with bullying, it`s a big problem among students as well. but since teachers are essentially powerless to effectively prevent/stop such things... not only can they hardly protect themselves should students attempt to pull crap on them, it`s also hard for them to help students who are subject to bullying. and yes, students in every country get bullied, but Japan is an extreme case of such.
students getting bullied aside, TEACHERS suffering from bullying too is something that was completely unimaginable to me before i came to Japan and i wish that that was still the case. teachers being bullied, threatened, etc is something that should NOT happen. that`s something that should NOT have to be tolerated AT ALL by teachers in my eyes. NO teacher should have to have as much tolerance as Japanese teachers are forced to have. they should NOT have to subject themselves to daily humiliation on account of students when they come to work everyday.
every country has a faulty educational system and i`m sure plenty are beyond faulty and are fked up like Japan`s, but god... Japan`s system seems to be royally fked in a unique way.
being an ALT thrown into such a fked up, foreign system is hard...