Students Are Not Superhuman: A (Short) List of Things Teachers Need To Stop Doing

I’ve only been in school for four weeks, and I am already ready for summer. I thought we were supposed to love school and love learning? Sadly, it seems our education system needs a reminder that students are human and not a source of income. Without further adieu, here’s my list of things teachers need to stop doing.

1. Assigning an hour of homework a night. I am in all honors and AP classes, so my teachers think it’s acceptable to assign me at least an hour of homework every night. While it sounds good in theory, it’s awful in practice- I have six classes a day. Since I get an hour of homework from each of those classes a day, that means I have six hours of homework every night. On top of having extracurricular activities after school for two hours and y’know, in addition to the need to eat and sleep, where am I supposed to fit in six hours of homework? It’s not adding up. And educators wonder why students come in and fall asleep in class.
2. Saying no to students when they ask “May I go to the restroom?” This one doesn’t even make sense to me. Why do teachers say no? If a student has to pee, they have to pee. Their bladder isn’t going to wait until 10 minutes after the bell rings. Oh, and when they ask “Well, why didn’t you go during passing?”, it makes me so upset. I genuinely don’t understand it. The bathrooms are all full during passing, because you lot make students go during passing. Where is the common sense?
3. Constantly correcting Black students when they use AAVE. If you are a teacher and you correct your Black students for saying ain’t or finna, you are not doing your job right. Since when did being a teacher include humiliating a student for speaking with a dialect? This is one of the main reasons why a lot of Black students drop out of school- being constantly targeted and singled out by your teachers simply because of the way you speak isn’t a good feeling, at all. Just remember, teachers- Ebonics is environmental, not remedial. Your Black students know that they’re not speaking the Queen’s English- that’s the point of vernacular speech.
4. Suspending/sending out girls for “violating dress code.” I just…this makes me so mad. Why should a girl be getting sent out for the length of her shorts when she should be getting a head start on the six hours of homework she probably has? Thankfully, my school repealed its dress code rules- hopefully other school across the US follow suit and, in turn, schools around the world. Because girls shouldn’t be punished because teenage boys get sprung at the sight of a shoulder.
5. Being vague in the instructions and not helping on the assignment. I get this a lot from my teachers- their excuse is “You’re an honor student!” Like, yeah, and? I don’t understand the assignment, you’re getting paid to teach me, so teach me. It’s not hard to do your job. This one isn’t that serious, it’s just a huge pet peeve of mine. Like why, teacher? Why are you like this?

Obviously, there are a lot of things teachers need to stop doing. However, this list was created from my point of view as a sophomore in high school. Also, with the hours of homework you probably have, it’s probably a good thing this is a short read.