This is Spitfire, a style of head-to-head debates between The Accolade’s two Opinion editors. Kayden is green. Aashna is pink.
PREVIOUSLY ON SPITFIRE: The two Opinion editors went head-to-head about whether or not parents tracking their children’s location serves as a breach of privacy. Surprisingly, the viewers had their hearts split between the two sides, and the fiery arguments resulted in a tie. Which editor will take the cake and break the draw this time around? One thing’s for sure: they’re both about to spit FIRE.
Here are the rules:
- No profanity.
- An editor attacked by the other will be given three sentences to respond.
- The readers will decide who wins through a poll at the end of the article.
- Once a rule is broken, the debate ends.
Teachers are undoubtedly a core part of the high school experience — just look at Mr. Li’s image, so tied to The Accolade. But in these four years, they both have very different experiences, and honestly, students have it harder. Teachers just instruct the same subjects using the same worksheets year after year, and the only thing they have to do is endure the boredom of that routine and learn a few more names.
Kayden, imagine needing to repeat yourself for the fifth time to a class of students who are just too engrossed in their own world, refusing to listen to what’s really important. It gets frustrating. When teachers show impatience for children who insist on playing their futile game of Block Blast instead of learning about photosynthesis, a certain level of irritation from the teacher’s side is almost inevitable — unless they regularly meditate in the Himalayas to maintain their “inner peace.”
Yeah, teachers spend year after year relearning and meeting hundreds of new teens, and I don’t blame them for getting mad at their kids. But just imagine what students regularly go through; they’re preparing for college — a huge part of the rest of their lives — while facing the weird ups and downs of teen drama. Even teachers have been students before, and still, I’ve seen some of them give and assign quizzes that they don’t end up grading — what’s all that about?
As a student myself, I get where you’re coming from, but there’s also an extent to which I agree. Of course, when there’s free time in class, students should be able to indulge in some “me-time,” but is that really necessary during a lecture? Sneaking phones in during tests or trying to find the most elaborate workarounds for blocked websites is a recipe for disaster and a breach of trust in a student-teacher dynamic.
Well, like you said, it’s a problem in the student-teacher dynamic, meaning the problem comes from both sides. Teachers constantly deal with bad kids, sure, but TEACH-ers are responsible for providing that moral guidance, not getting angry. Students who cheat on tests are those who feel like they aren’t comfortable enough with that class’s respective teacher to properly learn or ask questions in class, and that, by itself, is another struggle that high schoolers have that teachers don’t.
When all is said and done, students graduate and teachers move on. But that same insecurity will penetrate through teachers’ minds, constantly anticipating the next, impending cheating scandal — on a test, of course.
Because of the violation of rule No. 2, Spitfire ends by default. Who do you think is right? Click on Aashna’s or Kayden’s picture to declare your winner.
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