This week I've watched "The class" (Entre os muros da escola - Entre le murs), a French movie about a teacher who has a hard time teaching 7th grade students in a public school in France. Most of the students are sons and daughters of immigrants, some of them illegal ones, and they have difficulty to adapt to a multicultural society.
It's interesting to compare this reality with ours. Even in the "first world countries", such as France, the teacher doesn't have an easy job, as there are problems such as demotivated students, indiscipline, disrespect, so common in our public (and even private) schools here in Brazil.
However, even with these problems, our reality is still much worse. At least in France there's "some" respect, as students usually call the teacher "Mr. last name" and, sometimes, raise their hands to speak and stand up when someone else enters the room. It doesn't mean that I agree with these practices, I don't think that it's necessary to call someone by their last name or stand up to indicate respect, it's more of a cultural matter, that we don't have here.
What I mean is that in France the teachers seem to have more "power", more options to deal with (in)discipline problems. I have the impression that, here, many teachers are afraid to have arguments with some students or to take them to the principal's office because the next day these teachers may end up shot dead. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the first time that an angry student kills a teacher here in Brazil, not considering the crazy teens in the US who shoot everyone once in a while.
Is there any solution to the indiscipline and violence problems at school? Write your comments.
