TEACHER WIPES BLACKBOARD WITH STUDENT’S HEAD

This headline was in the Turkish news this week – a minor item, tossed in with the bigger issues, such as the latest IS advances in neighboring Iraq, and the coming elections in Turkey.

I suppose the headline grabbed my attention because I am a teacher.

According to the story, the student neglected to clean the blackboard (actually it was a whiteboard, but don’t wipe the journalist’s head with this story, if you don’t mind). Infuriated, it seems, the teacher – who actually was the school principal, as I read later – decided to issue a hands-on reminder to the unfortunate student. In a video caught on one of the student’s smart phones, we see the educator physically grab the student by the back of the head, and proceed to use it to clean the board.

I shared the story on Facebook, and as a teacher, I joked to my colleagues:

“Well, this takes ‘error correction’ to a whole new level.”

The share got a handful of “likes.” One of them, a veteran Turkish teacher, voiced her outrage against the teacher’s behavior. “This generation!!! of teachers are full of ideas! They follow in the footsteps of their lovely Sultan!”

An English colleague, with typical British humour, commented: “Have you seen ‘Eraserhead?’”

“No,” I commented back. “But that poor kid has!”

I’ve been a teacher for ten years, and have taught students from Europe and the Middle East mostly. I admit that, as a teacher, I still could use a bit of fine-tuning. And I’ve been to all the workshops (most of them anyway) on different methodologies, different learning styles. One must take into consideration different cultures, backgrounds, as well.

But still, folks: I don’t think that in any culture – at least not in this century – is physically humiliating a child in front of his peers (and thanks to smart phones, the whole world) a justifiable approach. Certainly, the poor kid won’t ever forget to erase the blackboard (or whiteboard, sorry). But how can you erase this treatment from his memory? Forgive me for sounding – what’s the word? Sanctimonious? Self-righteous? Judgmental? I don’t care.

That just sucks, people. How was this man ever appointed an educator? It reminds me of another teacher, somewhere in the east of Turkey some years ago. This particular stalwart, this beacon of learning, evidently displeased with a student’s answer, had him stand up in front of the class and “bray” like a donkey. True story.

Now, I know there are some old-school types out there, the ones who walked three miles a day (or was it five miles?), in the snow, uphill both ways – that famous journey – who will side with the teacher. They’ll talk about how kids today are a pack of ingrates, with their almost biological dependence on the Internet and smart phones, their snottiness, their crude language, their indifference – their disrespect for authority (gasp!)

These wise, war-weary veterans nod sagely: Yes, these kids need a good kick in the ass. Wipe that lazy, no-good kid’s head on the board; in fact, wipe all their heads against the board. Set an example. An example must be made. You are a teacher: teach them respect!

I don’t know about that. There are some that say a teacher’s job is to be some kind of moral compass, to be a parent in the absence of the parents (who are at work, earning a living for this lazy sonofabitch). But I am not one of those people. OK, a teacher can be these things. We all have memories of that particular teacher who we feel helped set us on a certain path, who guided us in some way.

But I don’t think using a kid’s face as an eraser in front of the whole class falls into the category of moral enlightenment.

At this point, the reports haven’t indicated if there will be any fall-out from the story having made the news. Talking it over with my students on Friday, their responses were mostly head-shakes; it didn’t seem to surprise them all that much.

“If anything, the teacher will probably just be transferred to another school,” one student said, a response that generated mostly agreement from the others.

It seems to be the way: Rather than punish the teacher (the school fears a scandal perhaps), the teacher is instead quietly moved to another school. Something else happened recently, when a 51-year-old teacher wanted to marry his 10-year-old student. He asked the parents for permission (the parents refused his proposal). The teacher was transferred to another school, and it was only after he persisted in his attempts – he called the parents again and told them he’d “had a dream” that he and the child were married – that he was finally arrested.

(By the way, this article deals with some recent incidents in Turkey. But I’m sure that similar incidents happen in many countries, so don’t think I’m just trying to single out Turkey.)

I don’t teach children as a rule (although I have had some experience here in Turkey teaching young learners). But my colleagues’ tales have given me a clue as to how tough it can be to teach young learners. Either you have the temperament, and the heart, for the task or you don’t . Those who don’t have these things should do the students, the parents, and themselves, a really big favor: Pack it in and do something else.

The students deserve better – much better, than that.

###

James Tressler is a writer and teacher whose books, including “Conversations in Prague,” “Lost Coast D.A.,” and “The Trumpet Fisherman and Other Istanbul Sketches,” can be found at Lulu.com. He lives in Istanbul.