I hate my new principal. I detest her. I abhore her. I loathe her. Not to mention her sidekicks who have to pretend to support her to protect their butts. That woman does the glorifying stuff and leaves all the shit for the sidekicks (DM and VP) to say. She is the one who gets to sound nce and understanding ("I just want to undertsnad what YOU think. What are YOUR versions of the story. I believe you people are intelligent, kind, moral, full of integrity, decorum and kindness... so I don't want to scold you. I want you to see me as a friend, not a disciplinary figure. Instead. I shall leave the scolding to my sidekicks, so that you can dislike them and like me instead while i portray a nice understanding image of myself.") Fine, I added on the last sentence by myself. Supporters may argue that students just do not understand discipline and are out to defy any rules laid out for us. Nope. The students that people see today are plasticine figures moulded by our environment, in other words, our educational environment. Modern education has taught us to have opinions, to think for ourselves and not to follow blindly. That's why students are so fussy these days. They are sharper. They can spot loopholes, good educators and bad educators (yea I know good and bad are very vague but they encompass everything) much more stringently than the, sorry, robots of the past. You see, how a message is put across depends very much on tone, body language, facial expression and phrasing and less on content. When a person, in this case the educator, tries to put forth his or her point, kids of today can, generally detect the genuity and sincerity of the speech. Telling us you want to be a friend is empty. Show it. Not that I was a big supporter of the ex-p. However, there was something in the way she presented speeches that captured the audience's attention and made us believe that she meant what she said, even if it had just been empty talk. There. The importance of tone, body language,facial expression, eye expression and phrasing. That is one thing I have to admire him/her alot for.
Students (or me, at least) do not detest discipline. Many, in fact, still sway towards being conservative. When we don't like, or rather, do not respect a particular educator, it is not because we do not like the discipline imposed on us. There are way more than a handful of teachers that I alone know, who are strict, uphold strong and sometimes even rigid, moral values but are able to establish strong teacher/friend/student relationships with students. Now how are they able to that? By the most important reagent in any person to person relationship: sincerity. Think about it. Yea, of course it's easier said than done. I'm probably very fake to some too. But I try to think, so many people have done, are doing it and can do it. Why can't I? One of my current teachers is a rather strict and in a way, rigid person, yet that teacher is able to make us listen and uh, obey, effortlessly. Just by being herself. Sure, there are many more examples, just that it would take too much space to list every single one of them out.
So, anyone who wants to an educator, or ahem, has a passion for teaching and serving the community, reflect and think. If you have to put up a front and be fake to TRY to make people, in this case, students, like you, then you're probably in the wrong line of work or merely going about things the wrong way.
Lastly, sorry this entry is so unorganised.