Nowadays, many teachers who get posted to JCs and secondary
schools are really young. Some are in their early 20s and are
rather beautiful and attractive looking. The problem is that, young
people, being young, are unlikely to control their raging hormones.
This results in a student-teacher relationship brought to a higher
level where the student no longers considers the teacher to be an
educator. Some students go to the extent of fantasising with their
teachers.
This is clearly a problem. A young student who is confused with
his/her feelings may be vulnerable to problems of an emotional
nature. Sometimes, mere counselling does not help. The image just
sticks to the mind.
Young teachers who are new to the teaching force also lacks the
necessary soft skills to deal with students who are moving their
relationship too close to a teacher. For example, one thread in AA
mentions that his teacher started giving him the cold shoulder the
moment she felt that something was not quite right. Is that the
correct way to handle the situation? I think not, for it leaves the
student confused and emotionally burden.
Experience and wisdom increases with age. As such, I think MOE
should consider raising the age limit for being a teacher.
