Respect

How would I define respect? I believe respect has to be earned. It's showing someone you appreciate them. A person also has respect from others, by having a positive and genuine attitude towards others around them or the subject.

Looking around a classroom you can see respect in many ways. First of all you have the students. They raise their hands (for the most part) to signal that they would like to speak. And other students show their respect by not talking while others are speaking. The teacher has respect from the students because they are a sign of authority. There are many examples you can look for within the class room.

I believe if a teacher isnt given respect in the class, then the students will walk all over them. The teacher should show that they are serious about their craft and that they want to be there. Just like students have to earn the respect of the teacher, the teacher must earn the respect of the students to have a successful and smoothly working class. I believe both the teachers and the students must go in with an open mind and positive thinking towards eachother.

I know from an experience during my junior year of high school that respect was a key factor in my math class. My teacher was kind of intimidating, you walked into her room and all you saw was pink. Pink walls, pink floor, she wore pink everyday! You'd think she would be a nice easy going teacher but, she was the exact opposite. She demanded respect. But she wasnt negative about it, she never said one single thing that was negative. Her first statement was, "Come in here with a positive attitude and the want to learn, Respect the people in this room and we'll have a great year." I thought this was a great and positive way to show respect because she knew the way she was going to receive our respect was going to come from being positive yet strong with her presentation.

I've also had another experience that I wish I could leave out of my school career. It was 6th grade and I was in Mr. Read's math class. He was very outspoken and was also the high school varsity football coach. I thought it was great! But one day we did problems up on the board and for some reason Mr. Read seemed different. When it was my turn, me and 4 other kids went up to the board to our problem. Now these problem were to "help us get ready for the next level" yet none of us could do these problems and we couldnt leave the board until we finished them. After 15 minutes, 5 kids including myself were at the board, but Mr. Read wouldnt let us leave. One of my friends decided he had enough and left to go sit down. Mr. Read sent him to the pricipal's for incibordination. I thought this was rediculous and I had completely lost all respect for this guy. He had not tried to help us what so ever and used his power to punish us for absolutely nothing. That's a bad teacher.

RESPECT: showing the appropriate regard for the needs, ideas, and experiences of others.