a shamelessly ripped off post

If it this is my project, my professor would have considered me as plagarising.

Here's a huge chunk of a post by roamer.


"Indeed, the school environment has changed at an exponential rate over the last decade. When I chatted with a teacher who's retiring at the end of this year, he said that schools have changed too much over the past few years - so fast that he can no longer cope - the extra work to be done besides teaching, the shift in students' attitude... Instead of gratitude, many feel like they're customers and we 'owe' them a service. When we don't accede to their 'requests', some of them can get very vindictive - just read some students' blogs and you can easily find students showering expletives and derogatory nicknames on their teachers. A few will even call these out at teachers face-to-face. (I remember in the past even the worst-behaving student would still show respect for their teachers.) Students now talk about 'rights' and about how teachers should respect them - I've heard colleagues who've come across students who told them, "If you want me to respect you, you'll have to show respect for me first." The more law-savvy ones may even find excuses to sue their teachers in court - just look at the alarming number of such cases in the recent years. How can teachers feel secure with showing care for their students when even simple acts of concern can be twisted to become lewd acts of indecency?

Recently, my student asked me to meet her under her block after my invigilation duties to answer her questions on Physics as her place was just beside the school where I was invigilating. Her classmate (another girl) came along too, and we studied for a while until we realised there're many flies around and the place really wasn't very conducive for studies. The girl suggested that we went up to her place. When I asked whether her parents were at home, she said only her younger sister was in. I vacillated for the while with the idea of being alone with THREE GIRLS without other adults around. It really sounded like a scenario which might get me into trouble. However after much persuasion, I finally conceded - the girls were afterall 'good' students, and their O level exam was on the following day - I doubt I have anything for them to seek revenge for anyway.

I have been very cautious with going to students' house. If I remember correctly, that was only the second time I went to a student's house after all these years of teaching - the first time was several years ago when I went to a boy's place with a bunch of other boys to celebrate the end of a school year. At that time, I thought going to a boy's house wouldn't have much implications, until those lawsuit cases started appearing in the papers. I don't know when and why the relationship between teachers and students have become so strained - I'll even hesitate before putting my hand over my students' shoulders during photo shoots. Is that the result of teachers with bad conduct? Or of vindictive students who are too badly pampered by their obliging parents?

If teachers (and school) and students are able to trust each other, none of these will be a problem at all. It used to be nice and peaceful when I was a student. So what went wrong over the years?"

I myself witnessed how some 15 year old can curse and swear at me on their blogs, but smile and "tair" when they want something from me. Where did they learn such plasticness?