“Hey! Teachers! Leave those kids alone!”

Amen, Roger Waters, Amen.

What better symbol for the detestable school system than the classroom teacher- the mean, usually aloof, antagonist of Calvin and Hobbs and Ferris Beuler alike. I don’t think it’s really possible to tell teachers simply to “do their job better” and leave them with all the blame, but I think that those doing the educating in the education system share some responsibility for the anti-school attitudes of our culture.

I believe the main reason educators get hate is because they are the bearers of bad news. Students are sat in desks and expected to memorize things they don’t necessarily care about for tests they rarely want to take. And it’s the teacher who is containing them in the classroom, presenting the information, and reducing each student to a grade.

In these circumstances, it’s not hard to concentrate resentment towards the hand that wrote the “F”, but in honesty the teachers not the blame for simply doing their job. However, one can legitimately place blame when lessons cease to be for a student’s expansion of knowledge, but instead for a test.

I believe the evaluation of a student has become way too dependent on test performance. Assessments were created to show a student’s understanding of material, and I believe they are necessary. But, instead of allowing that grade to define a student as passing or failing, a teacher should use that grade to help three force the student where they are weak.

However, instead of teaching students to understand and actually learn, many teachers’ lessons exist only to introduce material that will be on the test. Because of this, students have realized their grade is more important than their education giving fair reason to be feeling contemptuous towards school.