To get respect is to give respect.

A lot can change in two years. How someone dresses, what they eat, and even how they act. Many teachers fall victim to this change in some students’ behavior over the two years COVID has been in play. Students are losing their social skills and are even resulting in disrespectful behaviors. 

Teachers have been the number one people noticing this behavioral change in students. One of these teachers who have taken notice of this is Amy Stine, an Elkhart High School English teacher. “I have noticed a change in students’ behavior, primarily with our younger students. They haven’t been in school since middle school–some of the middle school behavior gets weeded out freshman year, and these students missed that chance.” Immaturity is what most people would call these behaviors, and since these younger students get the chance to grow, they are still in this mindset.

With teachers taking charge of this important issue, many of the peers of these students have taken an interest in what is going on and formulated their own theories. “During the past two years, I have noticed that students seem to have become more rowdy and disrespectful towards their peers and teachers,” shares Silas Hunt, a sophomore. “I think that this is because students have had ‘off years’ because of e-Learning and have forgotten how to behave in at least a somewhat civil manner.” As a case in point, Hunt adds, “Like the ‘devious lick’ Tik-Tok trend, which could show how the internet/social media is changing how people act and think. To me,” he adds, “this is a negative change, because it holds up other student’s learning and is changing everyone’s high school experience for the worse.” Hunt emphasizes how social media has a big effect on how people behave. 

It’s no surprise that people believe something needs to change to put things back to order. Hunt insists that change should happen now. “There are some teachers who I think are responding appropriately, but overall, it doesn’t feel like the school is really using a lot of effective tactics to combat this problem. But,” he adds, “it could just be more behind the scenes stuff that I don’t notice.”

Ms.Stine shares a comment about how quickly the school responds to them. “I wish that some of the actions could be happening faster, but the longer I have been in education, the more I realize that things move slower than we think they should be,” pointing out that even if the schools are trying, it may take more time than people hope.

At the end of the day, each person needs to take a look at him or herself to see what each could do to help school run as smoothly as it can be.