Incivility in students

“You have very little morally persuasive power with people who can feel your underlying contempt.” — Martin Luther King, Jr

 

Students’ lack of etiquette is rapidly increasing, fueled by the rise of digital media. Every time they are told to concentrate on their academics, they display a certain attitude and haughtily swagger about. They don’t listen to lectures with the intention of gaining knowledge. They put forward tens of lame excuses for shirking homework or for not submitting assignments in time. Often, the raillery between a teacher and a student turns into a rancour, both being presumptuous.

The reasons behind students’ insolence are varied and nebulous. However, they can be grouped under three rubrics: parents, teachers and media.

Parents’ dismissive attitude towards teachers and education instils impertinence in their children. In their daily post-school or college sessions with parents, when children complain against teachers, and parents support their children without listening to teachers, it initiates insubordination in children. When parents themselves talk ill of teachers, their children will definitely disrespect their teachers. Parents forget that disobedient students become impudent sons and daughters or vice versa.

Teachers themselves can be responsible for the presumptuous attitude of students. These days, teachers sadistically make fun of not-so-brilliant students. They ridicule students in front of all for their peccadilloes. Then these students resort to insolence as a tool of self-assertion and damage control when their self-respect gets bruised. When teachers don’t display magnanimity towards students’ betterment, they have to face audacity from students.

Teachers must be vigilant on not allowing banter segue into satire or ridicule. Tolerance is a desideratum for the job of teaching. The aggressive attitude and indiscretion of teachers are always counterproductive. On the other hand, tete-a-tete meeting with recalcitrant students can help them mend their ways. The anonymity of the class reduces civility.

Being netizens, students exhibit their flair to outwit those teachers who don’t refurbish their knowledge. The teachers who don’t have a strong grip on their subject fail to inspire their students. Their lectures become insipid creating room for students to make mischief. The generation gap makes both teachers and students assert their superiority. When that gap is not bridged, both become egotistical, not trying to understand the position and requirement of each other.

When media, especially electronic media, shows in its dramas and advertisements students back answer or outsmart their teachers, it becomes a norm among students to imitate such behaviour in real life. Gone are the days when in dramas, students were shown respecting their teachers. Social media and short video apps have fanned this uncivility among students.

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” says Ludwig Wittgenstein. The use of crude language at homes and institutions makes our youth ill-mannered. Wanton choice of diction in society or on media pollutes the ambience around our students. Consequently, their mind is contaminated which is reflected in their attitude everywhere.

However, when refractory students become a constant nuisance for teachers and fellow students, and they go beyond any redress, they must be rusticated lest they should become a vector of infestation of disrespect at the institution. But private institutions hesitate in expelling the miscreants compromising on the cerebral and visceral health of other students because it will cause a blow to their income. They deem students their financial assets, but it ends up promoting bullyism, squeezing the space for promising students who bring laurels to the institution. However, change of space often proves remedial for such students, too.

It’s usually easier to stop disruptive behaviour before it starts than to stop it once it’s started.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2023.

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