yeah....Things will only get better

I'm not too sure what consitute respect to this young girl. Before the class can commence, certain rules must be established. Once broken, there's absolutely no way you can really talk about respect.

I'm not for the arguement that the teachers must forgive the students after all they are still kids. It is exactly this same group of teachers that are being attacked for " not showing respect to the students", hence they shouldn't be respected in return? I don't know but to me this is what this letter is all about.

Before you can talk about being respected, your must learn how to respect others first. And from this letter to the press, I'm sorry but young girl, you still have a long way to go.

How do adults react when they are hungry and the office doesn't reall allow them to do so? They approach the superior and in the classroom example, the teacher. Apolgise first, then seek permission. Explain your reasons for doing so.

Of course, if such a situation keeps repeating, then it's another issue altogether.

I disagree with Mr Kevin Wong Zi Hao's comments in his letter to The Straits Times Forum page, 'Back teachers who act on unruly students' (Sept 3).

Being a 15-year-old student, I would like to offer another side of the story - the student's point of view.

I agree that some students are rowdy, unruly and show disrespect to their teachers.

However, I wonder if teachers have ever reflected on the root of the problem: Why are students showing disrespect?

Some of my peers show disrespect to a teacher because the teacher does not understand their needs. Some teachers even speak in a rude manner to students first.

Recently, one of my friends took nuggets to eat during a lesson, even though she knew she was breaking school rules.

After talking to her, I found out that she had no choice but to eat in class because she had lessons continuously from 10am until 3pm, and had no time for lunch.

Before the lesson started, she had rushed to the canteen to buy snacks to eat during the lesson, which fell during lunch time.

However, she was chased out of the class because of this.

I tried to negotiate with the teacher on her behalf, but to no avail.

Shouldn't the teacher have found out the reason why she brought the food in, instead of dismissing her as a rebellious teenager who simply wants to break rules?

I felt that the teacher could have shown some flexibility in this situation. After all, a teacher should be someone who cares for a student's welfare.

While it is demoralising for a teacher to deal with unruly students, it was equally demoralising to be the student in this case.

In my primary school, when the teacher returned our exam papers, we were faced with lectures that could last up to an hour. They would scold us for being lazy - any praise was hard to come by. Even a score of 80 per cent was not good enough.

Most times, we had stayed up till past midnight to finish that project or to prepare for that test.

So, I feel that students' efforts these days are rarely acknowledged.

While some teachers expect students to empathise with how they feel, we students also expect teachers to empathise with us.

To me, respect is never one-way. It goes two-way. If teachers expect respect from students, they should start by showing respect to students.

Woo Jia Qian (Miss)