The favoritism is so obvious: How rude teachers keep students from being academically successful
It's one thing to push students do better -- it's another to tear them down just to feel in control. Today, we hear about the teachers who change lives, but not enough about the ones who quietly target students and take down their confidence and self-esteem.
"Your sister was so much smarter than you. She always had free time in my class because she always knew what she was doing, but you never have free time. Grace, if you didn't get this done in class, that's terrible because the rest of the class did." This may sound fake, but yes, my junior year teacher said this to me, in front of the entire class. At the time, I was thinking "what a bitch," because what kind of teacher would EVER say that to their student. Every other person in that class with me started getting used to bitchy comments from my teacher; "Hurry up Grace!" "You should be done by now." "It's not that hard, you should be done." You would think this isn't a universal issue, but it is. It's an issue that needs to be fixed ASAP. It's an issue that is affecting teenagers mental health and self-esteem negatively.
Believe it or not... not all bad grades hurt as much as the hateful words that come with them. In the past five years, Michael Linsin surveyed multiple teachers in which they blatantly admitted to having favorites in their classroom. "Favoritism is an insidious snake that wriggles unnoticed under your classroom door, poisoning morale from the inside out. Left unchecked, it will slither into every area of classroom management" (Linsin 5). In other words, Linsin makes known that favoritism within teachers doesn't always show up loud, it creeps in quietly, changing how teachers grade, connect, and talk. Before anyone even realizes the severity of the favoritism, it's already hurt the ones who needed the support the most.
According to Shin, Huiyoung;Gyeong, and Sunjeong, the average amount of students getting bullied in the classroom is 42.7%, a decreasingly smaller amount than previous years. This is not to say that bullying isn't happening anymore, because it certainly is, and it needs to stop. Let's be real for a second -- just because these numbers have dropped, doesn't mean classrooms have magically turned into a shelter. Yes, you may see Tiktoks of teachers acting like they are a wonderful teacher and their classroom is perfect, but theres the behind the scenes that they don't show you. School shouldn't be a place children dread going to everyday. School shouldn't make you feel worthless. It shouldn't make you feel like you don't belong. Children should be excited to go to school; excited to see their friends, but sadly, some students are still fighting for the justice they deserve.
Madeline Will, on the other hand, believes that teachers are under so much stress that they may come off as "mean" or "bitchy." "In fact, educators navigating pandemic-era schooling are faring worse than other working adults these days. That's according to a new nationally representative RAND Corporation survey of 2,360 teachers and 1,540 principals, conducted in January. The researchers fielded the same questions to a nationally representative sample of working adults to compare results and found that educators have worse well-being on all five of the indicators in the survey" (Will 2).
Anastasia Betts also believes that teachers' rude personalities are due to the "impossible expectations" they face. "Most of us are familiar by now with the powerful monologue delivered by America Ferrera in the Barbie movie -- you know, the one about the impossible expectations of being a woman. Seeing all the Teacher Appreciation posts today had me thinking about the very similar impossible expectations that we place on teachers" (Betts 2). Yes... this may be somewhat true, but is it necessary to take the stress out on your students?
Another argument of why teachers' may be rude to students is made by Tim Walker. He explains that, due to the immense stress teachers undergo, teachers could be losing love for the job they once lived for. "In 2023, Brown and Catherine Biddle of the University of Maine released a study examining the cost to caring and potential remedies to mitigate the harm to teachers. Interviewing 540 Maine teachers, Brown and Biddle found that the levels of STS and burnout were very much in line with professions such as nurses and first-responders" (Walker 34).
At the end of the day, being a teacher is hard --- no one is denying that at all. The endless grading and long hours can push anyone and everyone over the edge. Pressure doesn't give anyone the right to take it out on innocent students. When teachers single out students, or snap at them unexpectedly, the classroom is no longer a safe space for students. Instead it's a battlefield; you have to be in the battlefield five days a week, for eight hours at a time. The rude words are more memorable to students than any lesson or reading thats been assigned. Teachers 100% deserve support, but students deserve the respect that comes along with it. It's 2025. It's time to talk about kindness in the classroom rather than grades and standards.
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