Building Respect With Students

It has been said that, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. This is also true with kids.

Kids are people too and they deserve respect as people that you would give to any adult. When I was a student, I was expected to respect my teachers and the adults of school by my parents, but today’s kids do not have that same expectation on them. This means that we, the teachers, must swallow our pride and show respect to the kids first in order for the kids to respect us. This seems backwards, but there is no use fighting that battle (maybe we can discuss this in a future article!)

As soon as you show respect to the kids, they become less defensive and open to your teaching, advice, ideas, and recommendations. Word gets around the kids of the school that you are a fair person because you care. I believe that you can show that you care for kids when you show them that they deserve to be respected as people. This has allowed me to be able to manage my classroom more effectively too. They know that the “lines have been drawn” in terms of proper behavior in class.

So, I have set rules based on what I believe is respectful. This goes over much easier when the kids feel respected by me, the teacher. I only send kids to the office when a student has crossed too many lines and I just need him/her out to maintain my own composure. This has not happened in a few years (Knock on wood).

Respect shows that you care and when the kids know you care, they will respect and listen to you, and you will have an easier time in your classroom management no matter what level you teach.