25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

156 Personality and Professionalism
appropriate and equitable. I do not
think a student should be responsible
for reporting another student to
the vice-principal. A teacher as the
lunch monitor may have been able to
SCENARIO 20.3
Trust Me at Your Own Risk
stop the problem and may never
have had to report the incident.
Teachers are usually more of a deterrent
to misbehavior than are student
monitors.
My worst experience with a teacher was in high school. I was taking a government class
at night and was receiving As on all exams. The last night of class the teacher said we
could leave early. When I left the class I had an A. I was apprehended by a school guard
on my way out and the teacher was reprimanded for letting me leave. After the guard
left, the teacher handed me my grade, which was now a C. When I asked her why my
grade had dropped, she accused me of cheating.
The teacher violated school
policy and dismissed her
students early. This heedless act
spawned a multitude of academic
sins. The first sin was possibly jeopardizing
the students’ safety. Having
a guard on the premises suggests a
need for precautions. She exhibited
displaced anger—anger at the student
rather than at the guard or with
herself. She did not accept the
guard’s reprimand gracefully. She
did not take responsibility for her
actions. She took her anger out on
her student who was caught. She
lowered that student’s grade and
finally, she justified the lowered
grade by accusing the student of
cheating. Unfortunately, her response
to being reprimanded undermined
her integrity.
Responsible teachers try not to
let situations get out of hand, as
this one obviously did. The mistake
would not have happened if the
teacher had observed school policy.
Teachers may unintentionally violate
policy because they are unaware of
school rules, but responsible teachers
make it their business to know
school policy on important issues.
Teachers with integrity take full
responsibility for their actions. Good
teachers would not let their students
suffer any consequences for their
own misdeeds. They would not consider
lowering a grade or accusing a
student of cheating in retaliation for
their being reprimanded.
When I was in eighth grade, our
home economics teacher let us go
home early. We were bussed to the
school so we had quite a distance to
walk to get home. There was a large
group of us, so we stopped at a little
candy shop that had a jukebox and
we danced and talked and went our
separate ways. It was all very innocent
but the next day seemed ominous.
I had never been in trouble in
school before.
The principal came to our room
to collect all of the students that left
early. The administrators treated us
as if we had skipped school. There
was talk of suspension, and I was