The Purpose of School and Roles of a Teacher

The purpose of school should be to educate kids for the real world and give them the knowledge that will allow them to be successful in today’s society.  However the purposes of schools are not to be babysitter for parents or be a substitution for parenting.  Teachers can be role models and should be role models, however this does not mean that they responsible for students actions.  I feel that many parents today blame schools for their kids getting into trouble or not succeeding in school programs.  I do believe that teachers having the role model responsibility and do have a chance to impact kids who may have unfortunate living situations in a positive way.  First thing, all teachers should be passionate about what they are teaching and teaching in general.  Being passionate would also include being enthusiastic and putting in the extra effort to reach the students on a level more than just in the classroom or gym.  I feel that some teachers may get caught up in the drama at school that has to deal with politics or student social issues and this to me is unacceptable.  Sometimes politics among schools get in the way and do not provide the best learning environment when the teacher’s main goal drifts away from their core philosophy and is more driven by the politics of that school.  When I was in high school I was Vice President of our class, Key club, and National Honor society, and during that year we had a few issue involving money and a teacher.  Regardless of what the scenario was the teacher that was claiming right to our class money had a wife who was also a teacher a grade above him, this became an issue when the wife went up to our president of the class and began to give her opinion on the scenario, this took place in the hallway, when no one was around and during a class.  I feel that this was wrong as a professional because our president felt out of place and awkward, at no point in time should a student ever feel uncomfortable around a teacher no matter the weight of the matter.  A good teacher will always pull a learning experience out of any situation whether it be good or bad, no teacher should ever try to influence and pressure a student to go against their beliefs and that is what this teacher did to our president.  I only bring this up because I feel all teachers regardless of the standards and textbook material that needs to be taught they have a responsibility to act appropriate and express good leadership through their position as an educator and a role model, by doing this will be leading by example and student will see how to appropriately handle situations because their role models and teachers will handle situations appropriately,  this action done by the teacher in my eyes fell out of the lines of a teachers responsibility and was inappropriate.