I work with a few teachers who really work hard to advocate for their students and protect them. I truly respect that! But I sometimes feel that some are enabling students by constantly defending their behavior to other teachers. It’s making me question my own reality 😳

One student in particular has been extremely disrespectful and seems to think that we are here to cater to her and adjust to her “mood swings”. I appreciate receiving a heads up when a student is having a bad day so that I can better support or give space, but it feels like every other day I’m getting a message to the effect of “so and so is in a bad mood, so tread lightly”. They’re just high school kids, and they haven’t completely learned how to regulate their emotions, but I don’t think this approach is good for them. This sets them up with the expectation that the world is going to tiptoe around them and that’s not the case. If you have a bad day as an adult, you have to tough it out because life doesn’t stop for you 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I am expected to apply the same rules to every student yet she is being enabled to think that she is the exception. We use a online system where we keep logs of student behavior and send comments to them and their parents. This young lady made an unspeakable racist remark towards another student, yet I saw a watered down comment under the log that completely minimized the behavior . Literally 95% of the comment went on about how she is a great student, not a bad kid and how loved she is and how this does not define her; nothing was said about how unacceptable that behavior was or why. It seems like this teacher was doing everything she could do soften the blow so that she wouldn’t feel “like a bad student.” Kids shouldn’t be crucified for their mistakes. They’re still learning. But why should they be shielded from feeling bad about their actions? Remorse is what helps people to learn and grow. Teachers who do this care so much about being “a safe space” for kids that they are justifying wrong behavior. It also undermines other adults when they try to apply discipline or redirect a student.

Ugh I just needed to get that out cause it’s been bothering me all week. Thanks for listening to my rant!