Teachers Shouldn't be Scary
I always feel like teachers derive pleasure in being feared by their students. I feel it's because it kinda gives them the feeling of superiority and sadly, it shouldn't be so. Teachers Shouldn't be feared, they should be loved by their students because once a teacher is loved, students tend to find it easier to grasp whatever it is he or she is teaching to them.
During my first year in school, there was this particular lecturer everyone at my department was scared of. He wasn't our departmental lecturer but for some reason, we all just knew he wasn't someone to be messed with, especially after we heard a rumor that he had been kidnapped in the past by some students due to how wicked he was to them.
So I made sure to stay off his radar. I did all of his assignments on time and never missed any of his classes. But then there was this issue of textbook. Lecturers at my school have this habit of awarding free marks to students who purchased their textbooks and unfortunately at the time, I was broke. So I tried getting the ones I could, and the ones I couldn't I prayed to God to provide.
Now it was finally exam day and we were to write this scary lecturer's course that day. I had not bought his textbook then but was determined to, so I had taken some of my feeding money to school that day, in hope of giving this man's courserep the money for the text book (the man's course representative was the one in charge of collecting money for his textbook).
So after the exam, I had approached the course representative and handed the money over to him. I know it was stupid paying for a textbook whose course I had just written but I wanted those extra marks and I didn't want to become an enemy of the lecturer just because I refused to get his book.
Just as I handed the money over to the course representative, he immediately informed me that I wasn't going to be getting any book from the man as all of his books were sold out for the semester but he was going to give the man the money regardless, so that I could get my free marks which made sense to me.
I had agreed, but something about the way he had said those words made me a little bit skeptical because me not getting any textbooks meant that he could literally not give the man the money and I wouldn't know about it because I wasn't going to get any evidence of payment (which was the textbook). So I decided to do something brave, I decided to march to the lecturer's office just to inform him that I had paid for his textbook and nothing else.
I remember how scary it had been that day as I walked towards his office, and when I eventually got there, I had summoned courage to knock on his door and walked in. With shivering voice, I had explained to him the reason for my visit and I remember how he had looked at me, it was as if he was pissed but was trying not to show it or something. Whatever it was, it had sent more shivers down my spine and when he had asked me to go call the course representative, I had taken that as a cue to run for my life.
I ran home that day and never returned to the man's office.
Fast forward to few months later, we began to hear rumors of how that course representative had taken some of those textbook money for himself and had not given it to the lecturer, it turned out my money was among those he had stolen.
Luckily for me, I had passed the man's course even though it wasn't with good scores.
I knew deep down that if I had not been so scared of the lecturer, if he had been a little bit friendly to us, I would had gone to give him the money for the textbook myself and not had gone through the course representative who was nothing but a thief.
All I'm just trying to say is that teachers shouldn't be scary, they should be friendly to their students as that is when they will get the best results out of them.