Teachers don’t always know best; Student’s habits help more than harm

     One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone thinks that they know someone better than that person knows themselves (and when people don’t have common decency, but that’s beside the point). How can someone even think that? It’s crazy actually because teachers here think that way.

     Students have certain things like listening to music, fidgeting with something, drawing, and more to help them focus during a lesson or while they work. Mine is listening to music. It helps me focus and blocks out every other little noise that distracts me. It could be dead silent in the class and I still couldn’t focus unless I had music because that’s just the way I work.

     But, for some odd reason, some teachers decide that they know me better than I know myself–which is absolutely crazy–and tell me that “you can’t listen to music because it will distract you,” or “it’s impossible to read and listen to music,” or something dumb like that. In reality, it has never once distracted me. When I tell a teacher that something helps me focus, I feel like they should want me to do that since I’m here to learn, and listening to music helps me do that. 

     I understand doing something like that doesn’t always help students and does distract some students, but that’s not how it is for everyone. If you listen to music or do something during a lesson that truly does help you focus, you should be able to do it. It is helping you, and what’s wrong with that?

     Teachers need to stop acting like they know what is best for us because they really don’t. They barely even know us; they see us every day but just about only know our names and maybe a few things about us that we decide to share, and that’s if we do decide to share something about ourselves. But besides that, they know very little about us, so how can they say that doing something specific won’t help us focus?

     According to edugage.com, “Music helps you concentrate by blocking out distracting noise. It acts as a stimulus that engages the brain, which modifies your mood and provides a rhythm that keeps you alert. This serves to make the task at hand more engaging, less dull, and easier to concentrate on.”

     It’s proven that music can help you focus, so I hope some teachers change their minds about what they allow their students to do, especially if the thing the students want to do helps them.