By Alex P. Vidal
“I am still learning.”—Michelangelo
INCIDENTS of teachers—both in private and public schools—losing their patience and exploding in anger inside the classrooms are not new.
Every now and then there are teachers who waste a big chunk of teaching hour to reprimand the students or mightily release their hard feelings in front of the students.
This is normal. Sometimes a teacher has to show his or her fangs to drive home a message especially when the students are blatantly showing disrespect and acts of hooliganism inside the classroom and acting like Houthi rebels.
What is not normal is when the annoyed teacher “advertises” his or her ebullition, or, just like what the agitated teacher who recently went viral did, post “live” the outburst in the social media or TikTok it.
People outside the classroom have nothing to do or have no idea what is happening inside the classroom. In fact, they don’t give a damn and they don’t care at all.
The netizens will only watch anything that appears in their cellphones and electronic gadgets as they scroll through the wild and woolly world of the social media, but they won’t get frightened or alarmed if the events they are prying into don’t relate to their loved ones: children or schoolchildren.
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Many teachers in the Philippines are overstressed and sometimes emotionally—if not mentally—problematic when they report for work. As human beings, they, too, are subjected to day-to-day foibles and challenges in life like you and me.
A little miscue by a student or a peripheral clash of ideas that will piss the teacher off sometimes ends up with the student getting a dressing down in front of his or her classmates. In most cases, the students are at the mercy of their teachers.
Our main takeaway is that mental health is an important, and too often overlooked, aspect of our lives. This is true for everyone: teachers and non-teachers, parents and students.
A classroom must be strife-free and tranquil. Because of their relationship, things that happen inside the classroom normally aren’t treated by both the teacher and students as earthshaking.
What happen inside the classroom—as long as it is not inimical to the interest of the students and doesn’t compromise the students’ security and well-being—stays inside the classroom—unless somebody will TikTok it or post it in Instagram. X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Ultimately, many aspects of workplace stress stem from anxiety about being effective at work. Teachers, like many other professionals, want to be effective in their jobs and suffer from increased stress, anxiety, and depression when they know they aren’t at their best or are not receiving needed support.
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HOW THESE NOTORIOUS GANGSTERS DIE. Never mind if some of their ilk are still very much alive today, enriching themselves astronomically, killing people left and right, and violating our laws with impunity.
Their time will come, anyway. Crime doesn’t pay.
History, in fact, is not kind to some of the most notorious gangsters based on the way they died:
–Joe Aiello (1928-1930), assassinated October 23, 1930.
–Al Capone (1899-1947), syphilis and pneumonia.
–Steve Ferrigno, assassinated November 5, 1930.
–Antonio Lombardo, assassinated September 7, 1928
–Salvatore Maranzano, assassinated September 11, 1931.
–Giuseppe Masseria (Joe the Boss), assassinated April 10, 1931.
–Bugs Moran (August 1891–February 25, 1957), lung cancer.
–Alfred Mineo, assassinated November 5, 1930.
–Joseph Pinzolo assassinated September 1930.
–Gaetano Reina, assassinated February 28, 1930.
–John Torrio (The Fox), heart attack April 16, 1957.
–Frankie Yale, assassinated July 1, 1928.
As Martin Luther King Jr had said, “Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
