JEDDAH, 2 June — Now, I understand that studying is not the most enjoyable pastime, but is it so horrible that students turn into gangsters? A postgraduate student last week shot a professor in the thigh several times, saying to him quietly “I’m not going to kill you now, but try this.” What makes a young man shoot his professor? Some lame reasons surface, saying the professors themselves are the reason because they are allegedly strict or unjust. Are those good enough reasons?
The gun-toting student complained that the professor was unjust to him. Why not make a formal written complaint against him? Why resort to violence straightaway? What is the problem with an educational system that produces teachers who abuse students as well as students who beat up teachers?
Nowadays schoolchildren — boys and girls — attack their teachers and university students shoot their teachers. What next? Are we witnessing a generation going out of control, or is it some new educational trend? No doubt both students and teachers have problems. But is violence the way to solve any of them?
To begin with, I am afraid that the family is the first one to blame in this situation. The easy life that families give their children spoils them; the children expect to continue to be spoiled later on in school, university and at work. The result is that we have spoiled and irresponsible people looking for jobs.
Talk to teachers at schools and universities and you’ll hear stories of how families interfere with students’ work, how families interfere with grading procedures and how families expect special treatment for their little darlings. At university, students just want to pass; any kind of work is despised in every sense. Twenty years ago post-secondary (college and university) students were expected to read on their own, to do research and think independently in order to learn and, consequently, to pass. Now we hear professors talking about how students want to skip studying in order to get a certificate the easiest way possible. Excuses are there but it really comes down to the kind of life too many of us are used to: the easy way to everything.
On the other side of the equation are the teachers. How qualified are teachers to deal with students? We cannot simply blame the students; our educational system has many problems. It is a selective system where responsibility is concerned. It all depends on how well connected you are if you are a teacher or a student. And punishment too often falls only on the heads of the unprivileged.
The family again is the main reason for lenient social behavior; children who are brought up this way eventually become teachers. A spoiled student becomes a spoiled teacher who is not used to taking responsibility and stories of abuse from students and teachers start all over again. Will this vicious circle ever end?
