How is the teacher-student relationship in today’s world? How has the relationship changed over the time?

A humble girl asked this burning question. Student-teacher relationship is at verge in 21st century world. It high time for us to think about social structure in today’s scenario. Social structure is melting into Individual’s need and right. We are handling 5th generation learners who are born techno-savvy children. Child loves to play with mobile rather than toys.

student teacher relationship-teacher student relationship-school education
student teacher relationship

We are living in an individualistic and materialistic world. 21st century kids are by product of this culture.  Children are growing in this culture. Do we expect high moral values from these techno-savvy kids? 21st century kids and parents spend much time on technology. Parent donot have time to interact with kids and kids have no time to interact with parents and other family member (if then), otherwise we are living in nucleus family system.  

Teacher-student relationship has taken a different shape. We cannot praise the nature of students-teacher relationship. We accept that there was no such as Utopian society existed in the past, however we had have respect and trust for each other. We can see clear picture through 2 stories-  

Read the real life experience —-

  1. 1990–95- we have studied in Government High School at my village. It is situated at the bank of the Ganga River. Our villagers were educated as well as farmers. One day in our school, “one of the famous and well versed teacher of social science (Economics) noticed some indiscipline in the classroom”. He went to the students and asked by taking their father’s name —” You are the daughter of so and so” reprimanded the students and also threatened that he will talk to their father. Student’s father had great respect for the teacher. When the child shared this incident at home- father reacted positively for the teacher. Father shared good qualities of the teacher and reprimanded his daughter. We had shared this incident with others people for a long time for glorifying the teacher. We considered teacher’s behavior as caring teacher. We had feared that the day any complain would come to our house. We would get nice scolding from our father or guardian.
  2. 2019-20  Scene 2- Since I have been dealing a number of students, interacts with a number of parent on regular basis———-If a teacher commits a single mistake (To err is human), the next day student’s father reaches principal office to show the inferior nature of system- teacher and principal. We know teacher’s intension. I have never ever seen teachers who feel jealous with any students. We handle children. Teacher knows the values of love and care. Since father is paying a heavy fee to the school, s/he shows arrogant nature in several occasions. We always find nature of arrogance in so many parents’ attitude and behaviors.

Teacher faces dilemma and sometimes mental trauma. Should I leave the student without reprimanding for his mistakes? If I ignore one child’s mistakes, will it not affect another child? Teacher and management feel paralyzed i.e. how to handle the situation?  

If you compare both the situations, you will find two things —1st case — it could be possible that students had some negative thoughts for their teacher but their father’s statement and gesture promoted positive aspects for the teacher. 2nd case- Child knows well if s/he complains about the teachers, school and school principal – parent will visit the school next day to have a nice verbal fight with school stakeholders———-

School develops different checklist for dealing different cases of students but we handle a human heart that is full of emotion, passion, anger and anxiety and s/he can show positive and negative emotion at any moment.  

When we talk about relationship, relationship originates from trust and respect for each other over a period of time. We are handling 21st century kids, smarter, more vocal and more techno- savvy. Home is the 1st and most precious place where we learn a lot of things. But nowadays we are living in a personal world.

Students’ certainly has less respect for the teacher in another word student loves a teacher till the date everything is fit and fine for him/her. If a teacher handles a kid strictly, student feels suffocation. When a human deals with another human, emotion cannot be controlled each and every time. No human can always express his emotion in controlled manner. The problem starts with overflowing of emotion.

Students and parents want everything for them but it must be controlled and measurable. In simple points

student teacher relationship-teacher student relationship- School Education
teacher student relationship- School Education

Students-teacher relationship is at Question Mark? We cannot blame teacher or student. Life style is changing within 5-6 months when “Apple” launches a most updated version of mobile and other electronic gadgets. We believe in materialistic thinking. We see our life in terms of buying and selling. People think that s/he can buy everything but can we buy a teacher. Of course, we can buy a robot teacher. Artificial intelligence can bring added value in our life but robot teacher cannot replace human heart.  21st century world believes in personalization and customization.  Importance of “I” & My” created a big gap between teacher and student. All the stakeholders, parenting, school system, child and the teacher all are equally responsible.

Rajeev Ranjan