LIMERICK, Ireland — Teachers are people most of us teenagers have to deal with on a daily basis.
They are the people who help us, who help to broaden our minds.
Usually, once we leave school, those teachers generally leave our minds for the rest of the day.
But what happens when those teachers start to have an effect on our personal lives and how we feel about ourselves?
Teachers can have a positive or a negative affect on us, depending on how they deal with their power and control. Unfortunately, some teachers abuse that control, using it to hurt their students, and there is only one name for those teachers: bullies.
I currently have a teacher whom I hate with a burning passion. She insults and degrades me and makes me feel small.
I am afraid to ask her questions for fear she might make me out to be stupid. She has shattered my self-esteem. I cry over her constantly.
Is this what teachers get paid to do: make students feel bad about themselves?
I don’t think so, but that is what many teachers do, and many of them don’t even realize they’re doing it.
These teachers go to work every day and upset their students. The fact that this might have an effect on the pupil never even enters their mind. Students are not people to them; they are merely work acquaintances.
On the other hand, there are teachers who are great influences. Those are the teachers who make a difference in our lives, who inspire us and help us.
These teachers are valuable and rare. It is these teachers whose lessons we need to carry with us for life.
Life lessons from a teacher can have great impact and can help us become better people.
Teachers affect us in many different ways, but in the end, they are supposed to be helping us.
Students don’t deserve to be treated unfairly and our teachers aren’t allowed to do it.
But if you have a teacher who is making you miserable, you need to speak out.
Teachers need to realize that what they say and what they do can have a big influence on young and impressionable minds.
When a teacher starts to hurt your feelings, then you know it has gone too far.
Teachers shouldn’t hurt us, in any way. They shouldn’t diminish our self-esteem or make us feel stupid or low.
Teachers like that don’t deserve to be called teachers. They are bullies and cowards, and they must be exposed, before it’s too late.
Marese Heffernan is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.