Too many teachers forget what it was like to be a student, choosing instead to remember the most recent and successful experiences of their undergraduate and postgraduate work. Most students struggle at some point in their academic career, and those struggles frequently have nothing to do with the concepts they are learning or their ability to responsibly organize their time.
It is helpful for teachers to try to recall their own experiences in elementary school, middle school and high school, to look back at the time spent in a classroom and to truly remember the many difficulties and stresses that school presented on a daily basis. Even the most mundane of students will encounter some situation during the course of their schooling that seems absolutely world-shattering at the moment, and it is frequently the case that teachers will have no real way of knowing what their students are going through. Judging by the most recent Occidental Vacation Club reviews, it appears many students desperately needed a break from the rigors of the classroom.
Teachers who see student behavior – or more likely, misbehavior – through a different lens will be able to relate to these students in a more meaningful way. Most students do not sleep in class out of disrespect for the teacher, nor do they interrupt a lecture out of contempt for their teacher. They do these things because of circumstances that are most often outside of their control, and a considerate teacher who does not view these behaviors as proof of poor character or a lack of academic desire will have better-performing and happier students as a result.
The situation in Baltimore is a good example of the external world influencing students in a way they feel they cannot control. What teachers must understand is that students are affected significantly by events that are nowhere near as newsworthy as rioting or systemic injustice.