Teacher are very often subjected to insolence and humiliation exercised by students and their parents.

In winter issues of our newspaper we published several articles on the teachers’ permissiveness “The Teacher finds fault with my child”. The subject is very urgent and we got a substantial feedback from our readers. Yet some time later we started receiving alarming letters from teachers, concerned with another side of this problem: “It is very good that in your newspaper you try to protect children, but who is going to protect us?” And this is yet another debatable problem we are trying to consider in this article.

“Writing now this letter I feel an overwhelming frustration. Frustration, because I am unable to help the only person I love so strong and so tender – my mother. She is a teacher in a common secondary school in the country.

There was a time when a teacher was the most esteemed person in our villages and small towns. But now it is as if the mob were again ready to mete out punishment over “those snotty white-collars”.

The teacher is again a subject for public dishonour and humiliation. It is his fault that the country people consume alcohol, he is blamed of their illiteracy and moral depravity – “in his time he should have taught them better ”. And what does it take “to teach them better” if the majority of parents nowadays think that their parental duty is to give birth to a child, and it is school to bring him up?! What can a teacher do if the since the early childhood children are accustomed to the drunken battles of their parents?.. The teacher’s duty is to instruct pupils, give them knowledge. And the teacher does instruct, does give knowledge – experiencing so much insolence and humiliation that no other person can bear. Now the school for so many teachers is another name of Calvary.

The students sitting at the back can easily sabotage a lesson, insult a teacher and mock at talented and hardworking students. And if these bullies are 16 years old and over 6 feet tall? A teacher must be a professional boxer to get a way with them. And my mother is in her forties, she has a heart disease… Who will make up the damages the school has done to her?

How can a teacher protect herself from insolence? Whom a teacher may ask for the help to combat this “pupil violence” that has become so widely spread now?”

Valentina Tcheshkova, Altay

Our reporters tried to get an answer to Valentina’s questions from high raking officials, but in vain.

“There is no law protecting teacher’s good name and dignity, - said Svetlana Redkina, who works at the Ministry of Education, the Department concerned with legal problems of education. – Yet there is general law protecting one’s dignity and good name, and of course a teacher can resort to it, when the conflict is very acute. But so far there has not been a single precedent of this kind in our court practice The question was debated at Department for Secondary and Higher Education at the Ministry of Education. Teacher are very often subjected to practical jokes, insulted… But it is natural, as far as children are concerned! Everything depends on the teacher: whether he is able to cope with children or not!”

“Look for another job!”- was a simple but effective piece of advice given to teachers by Aleksey Mayorov, the Custody Department Head.

This old problem is developing, getting still more and more urgent: stones are thrown at teachers not only in some remote provincial towns, but in Moscow as well – right in the capital of our country. And darts pupils throw at their teacher, - it is no longer a funny story for a TV comedy. The last decade stripped the teacher of all the reverence and piety of the people. Now a teacher is an oppressed, miserable person, with a very low income. When children look at their teacher what do they see? Faded blouses, worn out boots, a weary face. And they think: if adults, so strong, so smart and so just, have no respect for a teacher, why are we meant to treat him with respect?

What can a teacher do to protect himself:

• Give a pupil a bad mark for bad behaviour (the grade is put only into a student’s record-book, the teacher has no right to put it into the class-register, as it keeps records of the students’ academic performance only),
• Summon a pupil’s parents to school
• Rebuke the pupil in the presence of the principal.

Here is another letter we have received:

“Bitch! – yelled my pupil when I did not give him an excellent mark in literature pointing out some of his mistakes. He was going to enter a School of Theatrical Art and was to know the subject better. I felt shudder in all my body and blood rushing to my cheeks. I forced myself to give him in a calm reply: “Go out. You are not allowed to attend my lessons until you ask for my pardon in the presence of the whole class.” I knew that it would not be easy for him: he had a lot of bad marks, but he was too very ambitious and he was looking forward to getting a excellent mark finally, that is why he was bound to attend all the lessons. But he was opposed to asking forgiveness, especially on public. For some time his father was coming before the lessons to ask for his son, but I did not change my decision and everything finished the way it should have: the boy forced himself to articulate the words of repentance in the presence of the whole class. And afterwards he even tried to make friends with me…”

Svetlana Grigorievna, Tula

But what about the cases when a boy or a girl does not even think of entering a college or a university and thus they do not care about their marks? And a teacher has no right even to expel an offender – this can be done only because of the unsatisfactory academic performance.

12 years ago, Eldar Ryasanov shot a movie, based on Lyudmila Razumovskaya’s book “Our Dear Elena Sergeevna”: four roughs pay their teacher a visit to congratulate her on her birthday. Jolly kids play all the kinds of practical jokes on their teacher to get a key from the safe where she keeps their final examination papers. The atrocities of the teenagers are even more perverted than those exercised by Nazis… The movie stirred a great social turmoil, gave rise to debates and discussions concerning the depravity of the younger generation, of the teachers’ rights. But eventually it did not yield any concrete result – there appeared no law granting teachers social protection.

The author of the present article believes that here we should consider two problems: legal and psychological. The legal is easy to handle: we have already passed the letters we had received from teachers to Evgeniy Bunimovitch, a deputy of Moscow City Duma, an educator and journalist. He promised to draw the Duma’s attention at the problem and introduce appropriate amendments to the civil code.

But what are the psychological techniques a teacher should apply in conflict situations? We are waiting for the letters of our readers, all those who are interested in the problem and are eager to discuss it.

“The teaching profession is conservative to the marrow of the bone. Moreover the people, who choose it, are always reluctant to give up the time-honoured traditions of the society, and it does not affect their stereotypes only: they are conservative in their behaviour, even in their dress, - says Svetlana Rukavishnikova, a psychologist. – But of course this feature is also necessary and even good, but within reasonable limits, unless the teacher views the school as a kind of bulwark protecting him or her from the aggression of the outer world, and thus becomes an outsider. And unfortunately this is the most typical thing to happen. While children who are on the contrary very perceptive to everything new, plunge into this life and enjoy it. This is the source of the eternal antagonism between the teachers and the children, between the old and the new.

I can recommend that teachers adjust to the lighthearted mood of children, their carefree way of living: try to treat them tolerantly, always remember that a sense of humour is your best friend in many life situations. Do not forget: your school is not the centre of universe, the life can go on outside it.

Sometimes it is even recommended to change your manner of dressing. But of course there are the cases, when all you can do is just to look for another job.

…and how does it go out there?

In USA the conflicts between teachers and students are still more dramatic than in Russia.

Recently there appeared a movie directed by Kevin Reiner, - “187”, a story of a black teacher (Samuel L. Jackson, “Pulp Fiction”). In the police slang “187” is a murder, the teacher is eventually killed, but before it he is socked on the jaw, spitted at the face, and mocked by his pupils while he is trying hard to put them on the right path. According to the film-director this is the only possible outcome of the situation, moreover it is approved by the statistical data:

• Every 9^th American teacher gets attacked (in the 95% of all cases the offenders are pupils)
• Every 5^th High school pupil is armed (55% of students carry knives, 24% - bludgeons, 20% - guns)
• Students bring to school and colleges about 135.000 guns daily

This is the American way of treating the situation. The minor punishment is a severe reprimand of the schoolmaster, which children normally fear. If it does not help, the child is expelled from the school for an indefinite period of time (it may be a couple of days or several months, depending on the situation). If this does not produce any effect, the case is passed over to the police.