Experiences With MVHS Teachers

Mountain View High School is a wonderful place to learn and grow. MVHS is honestly a really good school most people would say, it’s a pretty diverse school, has a variety of clubs to join and overall a good enough environment. The teachers here at Mountain View care, respect and are overall considerate to their students. But they can also sometimes step over the line and make students feel unwanted, disrespected and can be malicious. The teachers that I have had in my 3 years being here have mostly been supportive, caring and respectful.

These are a few things students admire about teachers at MVHS “I love when teachers are aware of students’ feelings and mental health.” Another student said, “when they’re interesting and when they’re funny.” When I asked this question 4 students mentioned the teacher Mrs. Lant saying that she is a wonderful example of what they want in a teacher! What makes Mrs. Lant so special you may ask? It’s the way she cares and earns trust from her students.

There are a lot of teachers like Mrs. Lant in this school. She is just one example of how MVHS has some teacher gems. Now I wanna start off by saying that not all teachers have the same teaching methods or students can have a different perspective of a teacher. But my main point here is that there have been cases where teachers have not been respectful or kind to students.

A girl that I interviewed talked to me about how a teacher wasn’t being comprehensive. She said, “I informed my teacher about my anxiety and told him that I’m not comfortable solving problems on the board. Because of my anxiety he wanted to put me on the spot more often.” Respecting boundaries is key to teaching. If a student is coming to you and talking about how they aren’t comfortable with doing something it should be respected. One thing is to challenge a person to step out of their comfort zone but another to force them to do something that actually makes them feel uncomfortable.

Another student told me about a bad experience that they had with a teacher here. She said “I wasn’t the best student so I didn’t show up most of the time. But when I did he would make snarky comments like if I even wanted to pass or if I even cared…in front of the whole class. And everyone could hear what he was saying..It made me feel like trash. I didn’t wanna be there. So like the last month or so of the semester I didn’t go because he made me feel so bad about myself. Or when I did show up he was like, ‘Oh my god look who it is! Look who decided to show up!’ He was so loud it was so unnecessary. He didn’t care why I wasn’t showing up. He thought I was lazy and a no good student.“

She said that all she wanted was respect from the teacher, she wanted to feel comfortable enough to go into his classroom without feeling judged and overall he just needed to show kindness to this student. It lowered her self esteem and she even told me if he wouldn’t have made those comments in front of the class she would have been more comfortable coming into his classroom. She felt as if he couldn’t ever be in the wrong and wasn’t willing to own up to unkind things that he had said to her. Respect is something that she lost for that teacher. That was a lot to cover but again no teacher has a right to make a student feel disrespected.

Going back to my past years in this school it hasn’t been so bad like I mentioned before. My teachers were very good and were there for me. But one day I came into one of my classes, I had a short conversation with my teacher and sat at my seat. Later he asked me if I could solve a problem and so I did. He told me that my answer was right but my work was wrong. So then he tells me to fix my work a certain way. I was confused on what he meant, but I eventually got what he was trying to say. It took me a second to realize that he wanted the problem done his way. Once I fixed my mistake out of nowhere my teacher told me, “April do you speak English?” In front of the whole class. I was caught by surprise. I told him, “Yes,” and then he asked me, “How well is your English?” Again, in front of the whole class. I honestly felt embarrassed. Why would he ask me this? Did I not speak good English when we had that chat before class started? I sat down in my chair thinking this guy really just embarrassed me. Just so you guys are aware, I am Mexican and I do have darker skin. But just because I am Mexican you can’t just assume that I can’t speak English. In my defense I did take an honors English class last year so that’s also why I was pretty offended too. My teacher could have talked to me after class and asked me those questions, but I would have reacted the same way, embarrassed but at least it wouldn’t be in front of the class. Or even better he could have said “Do you get what I’m saying? What part did I confuse you on,” because again I got the problem right it’s just I didn’t solve it “his way.”

Also when hiring teachers they should really check up on them to make sure that these teachers aren’t abusing their power. If only there was a survey where students could rate their teacher or even have secret students report to the principal and tell him how the teacher really is. So that way the principal can have a talk with them and tell them how students really feel.

Teachers should be respected by their students but if one shows disrespect how are students supposed to do the same? Teaching is a hard job to do especially when dealing with teenagers but treating us kindly goes a long way.