September 25th was an instance in which I went through an ordeal with a disrespectful staff member. During distribution, when I gave an issue to a certain staff member, they proceeded to bash the sports column and throw the issue in the trash. This action angered my classmates and me because we had spent countless hours preparing the first issue for release. Now, a staff member is different from a teacher, but disrespect exists in both, to a degree. When I was handing out the Wolfpacket, I expected other students to be disrespectful, but not staff members who are supposed to nurture and offer guidance to students. Likewise, there are some teachers across the school who are disrespectful and rude, as they disregard students’ opinions and do not treat students with respect. Teachers should not be disrespectful to pupils because it fosters an unhealthy learning environment and because it does not model good habits to those learning.

Disrespect is not beneficial to a learning environment. Healthy learning environments are essential for student growth. Once during office hours in my freshman year, a teacher raised their voice at a student. The teacher screamed at the student criticizing their work ethic and quality. During this 15 minutes, the classroom was dead silent and everyone’s attention was averted towards the student and teacher. To be fair, this student was not on task, but this does not justify the the 15 minute rant. At the end of office hours, the student was on the verge of tears and felt victimized. This resulted in the entire class feeling scared and uncertain. The classroom should be a place where people feel safe and where all interpretations of ideas are valid, not a place where statements are afraid to be expressed. Teachers should foster healthy learning environments by being patient and more attentive towards opinions and ideas. These qualities are important because it verifies the reliability of the teacher. The moment a teacher does not appear attentive or patient, students start to question the expertise of the teacher.

Discourteous teachers do not convey good habits. School is a melting pot where students learn and obtain information. Most of this important information comes from what is learned in the classroom. When teachers portray disrespect, it reflects in their students. The information that is taught in the classroom prepares students for life by instilling within them information and tools to live successfully. A way teachers could refrain from depicting disrespect is by always being aware and second-guessing what they are doing. However, there are opposing views to this side of the argument.

Now, one might argue that disrespectful teachers prepare students for real life, and students should be able to deal with constructive criticism. This is not a strong argument because there should be a time and a place where students learn how to

deal specifically with disrespect and that should not be at school. This is because a school environment should be sheltered to some extent. Also, there is a large difference between disrespect and constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is beneficial and looks at the positive and negative aspects of a problem, whereas disrespect is just a rude rant.

It is important to consider how teachers’ actions impact students. Sometimes they disregard ideas, convey bad habits, and are too opinionated. They could benefit by looking at all sides of a problem before jumping to conclusions and becoming opinionated. Teachers are role models and prepare the next generation of young scholars, so they should nurture andrespect their students.