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Prime time news these days often resembles a cock fight. Politicians of all parties incessantly attack opponents with the most offensive language. A scene of the chairman of National Assembly telling off the representatives of both the ruling and the opposition party concerning the stalled national budget was well worth watching. Who isn't disgusted by these politicians who pursue selfish ends and neglect crucial national business?
Not one day is free of this political feuding, but politicians are not alone in the fight. Numerous supporters root for them. Our society is increasingly and irrevocably becoming more polarized and anonymous comments are too vulgar to repeat. Sadly, a few weeks ago I chanced upon an upsetting report concerning some high school students. Under the guise of evaluating a female teacher, some mischievous students wrote obscenities on the female teacher's evaluation paper. And it occurred to me that these young students' behavior was a presage of the vulgar language common to modern cultural discourse. Had they already learned this way of speaking from adults?
Some people jokingly call our middle school students "kids without soul," because they are immature and their values are not yet solidified. So, they are easily influenced by what they see and hear. And unfortunately, they may well jot down obscene words on their teacher's paper with little remorse, having adopted the filthy comments and disrespectful attitudes of adults.
Ideally speaking, student feedback is necessary. Through responsible feedback, teachers can see weak and strong areas of their instruction and hence they will be able to plan better teaching strategies for the future. However, most teachers, particularly female teachers, suffer stress from disrespectful feedback. How daunting for a teacher to face students who sneer in class and employ blatant sexual harassment! Exploiting anonymity, those mischievous students scribble numerous shameful obscenities on their so-called teacher assessment papers without any feelings of guilt.
We see an array of vulgar words and sexual innuendoes in the comments section, all of them unrepeatable. As those students read these vulgar words on their phones, they think it is okay to copy them. Worse, they can hear these words from their parents at home and emulate them. This shows a constant degeneration of future generations, a massive wave that might be impossible to dam. Whenever the time for teacher assessments arrives, many teachers feel depressed. The friendly bonds that should bind teachers and students have dissolved.
The rights of teachers have long been eroded and there are hardly any legitimate safeguards left to defend them. Mentally traumatized, many teachers are said to need medical help, but they cannot take much sick leave because that would impact negatively on all students.
Therefore, I think we need to take more realistic measures to protect teachers' rights to teach, such as removing the descriptive assessment. I hear that a new ordinance will insist that those students involved in serious infringements of teachers' rights will have this noted on their academic records. I find it hard to believe this would deter the worse arrogant behavior.
Teachers are not only the means by which students acquire knowledge, but they are also responsible for helping kids grow up to be mature and courteous citizens. So it is very important to instill necessary ideal values for the future such as respect for others and courtesy to their elders. But nowadays, this function has gone, and teachers are subjected to sneers and mockery and through the teachers' descriptive evaluation paper became the prey of mischievous students.
But in the end, the kids are victims of vulgar examples such as the degenerate commenting culture beloved by so many politicians.
Lee Eung-tae (eungtae@gmail.com) is a former high school teacher who taught English for 35 years.
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