In the past few days, I have read many stories about this. Students making fun of their teachers during online classes, laughing at them, insulting them; which made me think that maybe there is a need to spell things out. So, here you go:

The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything in the world. 

Lockdown was imposed in most nations across the globe, so people had to come up with a new way of living which doesn’t depend on physical proximity, but still gets the work done. 

For education sector, it meant online classes. 

Which increased the problem for the professors, and in many cases, gave students a chance to harass them.

I’ll take the example of our own country. India is a developing nation and even though smartphones and the internet have reached even the interiors, a lot of people still get intimidated by technology. 

This includes teachers.

However, with no option left, they are learning.

They are trying to understand how the apps work, how to add students on them for classes, where to look while teaching, how to not make the entire thing boring. Stuff like that.

And that is just the technical part of it. 

There is also a certain shyness to face the camera, after years and years of teaching a classroom full of students.

Now, all you have to do is, join the lecture and listen.

Turns out, it’s too difficult for some. 

To those people, I have some questions to ask: Have you seen your parents struggling to send you a certain link? Or when they video call, them keeping the phone below their chins?

I have.

And it would break my heart into a million pieces, if I got to know that they were trying to learn all this for someone and were made fun of, in return. 

Just the thought makes me emotional.

So, while I don’t find the argument – ‘what if it happened to your parents’ – an ideal way of generating empathy (it should be innate), I’d want you to go ahead and think about it, if that helps.

If it helps you to be a better person, think about your parents being in a similar position.

I bet it won’t seem funny then.

That may also make you realise, that you are causing trauma to the kids of the teachers you are humiliating.

Recently, a friend of mine uploaded a story on Instagram. His mother is a teacher.

She was sitting on her chair memorising her lesson for the day and she forgot a line. Confused, she started the whole thing again.

This is what your teachers are doing. For your benefit. Think about this the next time you join a Zoom class with a fake ID and write something ‘hilarious’.

They say Eklavya gave his thumb to guru Dronacharya when asked for it. No one expects you to do that, but some basic respect will be very nice. 

They have the same issues like your family does. They have people to feed, a job to keep and duties to fulfill. If they are ready to put in so much hard work for that, the least you can do is respond with gratitude and not hurt their sentiments.