Assignment 2

Student nr: 61717940

Surname: Van Zyl
Name: Francois Burger
E-Mail address: 61717940@mylife.unisa.ac.za
Cell phone number: 0769812347
Group: BP1501-17-S1-199T
Unique number: 707950
TA: Mr N Spence
In assignment one, we had to discuss our understanding of what a professional teacher
is and what makes a teacher a professional and it was stated that a teacher must love
their work and also be patient with students and the teacher must understand each of
her students. They must know when and how to communicate with their students in an
acceptable manner. I overheard this incident from one of my teachers about a teacher
from another school who had an argument with her student in front of the other
students.

The school in question is a multi cultured school and has two languages that it teaches
in, Afrikaans and English. When the students start the school in Grade 8, they are
separated into classes according to the Home Language of their choice and the
teachers, regardless of their home language, have to teach the learners in either
Afrikaans or English. When the learners reach Grade 10 and have to pick their own
subjects, the classes are then mixed and the teachers have to teach in both Afrikaans
and English. This incident occurred to a student who was starting grade 10.

It was during an Accounting class when this incident occurred. The teacher in question
had spent the day teaching in Afrikaans and most of the English students could not
understand what the teacher had been explaining, the teacher then went on to ask the
English students, in Afrikaans, if they had achieved all they had meant to achieve that
day and the student told her no as they had not understood what had been taught. The
teacher then became upset, stating that the learner was “simple” (which means crazy)
in front of the whole class and that the work was not that hard. The learner then stated
that she was rude to call her simple in front of the whole class and stated that she and
the rest of her friends could not understand the Afrikaans terminology and the teacher
tried to throw the learner out of her class. When the student refused to leave, the
teachers asked the learner to stay behind after class. When the two of the them met,
the teacher brought in the head of the Accounting Department and told her that she
refused to teach the learner and that the learner must be transferred to another teacher
to which the learner replied that she still wanted the same Accounting teacher and that it
was her right to get a good education. Unfortunately the incident occurred on the last
period on a Friday and the learner went home and nothing was resolved.

The following Monday while the learner was once again in the Accounting class with the
same teacher, the Principle called the learner into his office and tried to solve the
matter. The learner than called her father, who is also a teacher and the matter, went
from bad to worse. The learner and her father told the principle that the teacher should
also be present in the discussions as the incident occurred in her classroom. The
principle initially refused but ended up calling the teacher. The matter was discussed
and the teacher stated that she does not understand why the learner was upset as they
never had a problem before and that she was a good student. The learner stated that
she may have understood the work but was standing up for the rest of the learners who
didn’t understand. The parent then asked for an apology from the teacher for calling his
daughter “simple” in the classroom or he would take the matter to a higher authority to
which she apologised and the learner also apologised for her behaviour and the matter
was settled.

The whole incident could have been avoided had the teacher simply asked the learner
to stay behind before things escalated. The matter could’ve also been resolved when
the learner stayed behind to speak to the teacher. The teacher could’ve apologised, told
the learner that next time the learners should ask that the teacher repeat what they said
in English or even better offer, offered to have a special class to help those that couldn’t
understand what was taught in that period. Having an argument with a learner,
especially in front of their peers is never a good idea even worse when you call them
names. A teacher must always be patient and understanding when dealing with angry
students.