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Give Teachers More Power
| EDITORIAL |
| NH House Bill 375, recently voted on in committees by the state legislature, seeks to give teachers the power to resolve scuffles between students whenever and wherever they show up in their school campuses. We at the NH Herald give accolades to the legislature for passing this bill. Once again, the legislature seeks to restore sanity in our schools. For too long, our teachers have been left powerless and helpless in the hands of teenagers who either lack basic etiquette or think they can take the laws into their hands by waging fights against buddies and even against their own very teachers. Right now the debate surrounding the bill’s final passage centers on the latitude of teachers’ powers. Of course, it states very plainly that a teacher cannot abuse the law by abusing a student in the guise of enforcing it. However, the whole definition of teachers’ powers here remains very vague. We think that lawmakers should not leave a blank check to the teachers. It will create more confusion than solve a problem. And by this we do not mean to say that teachers have been unconstrained with unlimited powers. To the contrary, we think that to avoid ambiguity when it comes to interpreting and enforcing the law it is necessary that teachers are made to understand precisely what they can and cannot do when it comes to settling fights and bringing disruptive students to order. Truly, we think that this law ought to go even further as to setting more bars between student and teacher relations. Many years ago, for example, a student could not address his teacher by his/her first name. They were addressed by the title of Mr./Ms. as a matter of respect. The teacher was revered by his students. He was looked upon as a role model. He was an icon. You dare not speak back to him. When students graduated college with a good job, they were anxious to see their teachers to thank them for their discipline. Today it is very unfortunate what our society has reduced teachers into being. There can be no doctors without teachers. No lawyers, lawmakers, journalists, etc., without teachers. Yet how pitiful the men and women who work in this great institution are now compared to decades ago. We’re strong advocates of more guarded power of discipline in the hands of teachers and school administrators. You take a ride in the morning to drop the kids in school, and you look at the way some of the students are dressed up, and you wonder whether they’ re going to a farm or to a classroom. Some dress almost half naked while others are kissing a block away from the school. And what about this jungle language they adopt? At the end of the day many drop out and end up in assembly lines or pregnant. This law ought to go far enough to address some of these behavior issues in our schools. We believe strongly that both teachers and administrators should be empowered to regulate some of the above illicit behavior. They should be able, for instance, to discipline a student who cannot pull up his pants. Students who are kissing, using vulgar language – it is the summation of all these that provoke scuffles and fights in school. If this is not done America will end up with a workforce that knows only the assembly line. Nothing else! NH has always been the leader. We’re called “first in the nation.” We can lead in this initiative if partisanship is waved to the gallows. After all, at the end of the day all we have is our kids. When we choose to spare the rod and destroy their future, karma as they say, will be ours to swallow. |
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