Have you ever been talking to somebody, maybe telling a story or asking a question, and they completely ignore you or talk over you? The feeling of self-loathe washes over you and you look around to make sure no one else saw you “talk to yourself.” Imagine this happening every day, potentially multiple times in a day. One might even think, “why do I continue talking to these people or bother telling my story at all?”

Now, imagine how teachers feel every day. I know that at one point we have all been one of those students who have talked right over the teacher or just paid no attention. After all, we have a nice iPad sitting right in front of us holding endless opportunities. It is easy to drown out what our teacher is saying so we can be gossiping in our Twitter DM’s, but remember how it feels when people just ignore us or talk right over us?

I have babysat for numerous families with kids of all different ages, so I know how frustrating it can be when one of the kids ignore me or talk right over me. Whether I am telling them to stop yelling, eat their vegetables, or stop turning up “Alexa” so loud, they sometimes just don’t want to listen. It is frustrating, but I know how much patience is required to work with kids. Now, I haven’t devoted my entire life to babysitting or even attended school for babysitting, but our teachers have devoted their lives to instructing us. They literally spent at least four years of their lives learning how to educate us. It is shocking to me how we can just ignore and talk over our teachers, without caring at all.

Some might say I am trying to suck up to the teachers or that I am a “teacher’s pet,” but when was the last time we actually thought about how it might feel if we are never paying attention to the person who has dedicated their life to us and wants us to succeed? They spend day in and day out preparing lesson plans, grading homework, and creating assignments just so we can pass the quarter. So why do we, as students, make our teachers’ lives so hard by simply not listening? We were taught at a very young age to listen, most likely by our teachers, so let’s use it. We have the ability to make our teachers feel as if we truly care about more than a letter grade, so why aren’t we exercising that ability? Think back to that time you were talked over or you were ignored, do you really want others to feel that way as well?

Janessa Klein

Opinion Writer