"Swore at Me for Making Them Present... Current Teacher Confesses 'I Have No Strength to Love the Children'"

"Burnout Due to Kids Who Make Things Difficult"

A current high school teacher shared an anecdote about being insulted by students. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Outrage is rising as a current high school teacher has come forward, expressing that they have experienced humiliating incidents such as being cursed at and openly ignored by students.

Recently, a post titled "Writing a Rage Diary About What I Experienced at School" was uploaded on the anonymous workplace community 'Blind.'

The author, referred to as A, described themselves as a "current high school teacher" and began by saying, "I am quite young, female, and short, so I am writing this considering that I am often ignored by students."

A claimed that they were cursed at by students during class. When asking students to present, one student reportedly gave them the middle finger and made remarks like "Hey XX, what are you saying?"

A explained, "A student was using their phone during class, so I tried to take it away. According to school rules, phones are usually collected, but that student refused to hand it over." They added, "Phones are only collected during class and returned during breaks, but the student resisted, grabbed my phone, and threw it."

Teacher A claimed that students hurled insults at him or openly ignored him. / Photo by 'Blind' internet community capture

They continued, "While I was giving instructions, it seemed like some student didn’t hear. They said right in front of me to their seatmate, 'What did the homeroom teacher just say?'" and lamented, "'They could have asked me directly, or at least asked when I wasn’t around.'

They also said, "Whenever I say something, I get responses like 'Ah, so what?' and when I try to scold them, the students make a fuss saying they will record a video. When my voice gets louder while scolding, I hear things like 'Ah, shut up, why are you yelling?'"

A claimed to have written a letter to sincerely convey their feelings to the students, but discovered that someone among them tore it up and threw it away. They said, "After that, all the affection I had left for the students disappeared."

They added, "Of course, there are some nice kids, but because of the difficult ones, I have burnout and no energy left to care for the good kids. I tried harder than anyone could imagine. I thought if I did better, the students would recognize it. But the more I tried with the difficult kids, the more they looked down on me. Once they looked down on me, I kept getting ignored and mocked. What am I supposed to do?"

Netizens who read A’s story responded with sympathy, saying things like "Teaching is truly an extreme job," "I didn’t realize kids these days were that disobedient," and "Teaching is one of the professions with a high rate of depression. Stay strong."