Huhm, about the question as to if a teachers role should end inside the classroom. I will be talking from a personal and a teacher's point of view. I'm a serving corp member who's posted to a school to teach. So, I have the opportunity of teaching and standing in front of this young minds day in day out.
So, if I as a teacher should see a student misbehaving after school hours, do I have the right to caution him or her? I understand that we live in an advanced age now and it's valid to ask or know if I'm being protected by whatever step I take at such a time.
Now, I have an example to give. Less than two weeks ago, it was after school hours, but I needed to get something in the next street, so I picked up my shirt and a short and stepped out, on my way back, I saw a group of students gather round one of them, she was almost invisible in their midst. And from what I was seeing, it's obviously not a joking matter. They've actually ganged up against her and we're bullying her.
To be honest, I thought about it twice, but at last, I moved closer to them, called their attention, rebuked them and sent them away. They murmured and all, but they went their way, I need to also add that they were my students in school. I've heard several cases of students ganging up to beat their teachers and all, so beating up their fellow students is nothing to them. I'm glad they listened to me though.
When they left, I handed the girl my handkerchief and she dusted dust off her body,I engaged her a little bit and I got to know it wasn't the first time that was happening to her, all because she's the smallest amongst them and they always love to ride/use her. The following day, I reported them to the school authority. Now, assuming I had walked away when I saw them in the name of, "we're not in school, here isn't my jurisdiction," and something much more worse has happened.
It is true that we may not always be protected outside of the school hours or premises, but does that mean we should turn a blind eye to a wrong thing going on. Beyond just being teachers, we are as well brothers, neighbours, and senior ones to these students and when they see us, they expect more. Even in class, they don't always expect us to speak big grammars and solve equations, no, they also expect us to advise them, to guide them and all.
There was a day I was going to town to attend a program with my fellow corpers, I was on the bike when I saw one of my students, I asked the bike man to park, and I beckoned on him, when he got closer, I saw how tired and stressed he was and I asked him where he was going to under such hot sun, at the end, I had to ask him to sit with me on the bike, where he was trekking to was even farther than where I was going, I paid the bikeman and asked him to drop him at his destination.
Was that out of my jurisdiction as well, as teachers, beyond the classroom, we are as well examples wherever we find ourselves. Our actions outside of the four walls of the school matters.
We should be able to correct, advice, guide and rebuke these students. I remember speaking sense into one of the older students head this week. It's not as if we have to always punish them, there are times our words will hit deeper, there are times we just have to caution them and that's it.
Personally, I believe a teachers role shouldn't end in the classroom. We aren't just raising students, we are raising better people for the future of our world.
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Images are mine.
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