teacher gets it on

These images are going the be Belgium's images of the week (as there's nothing that is interesting enough to go beyond a week's attention any more). A teacher, obviously fed up with the unwillingness of a pupil, completely loses his cool ...
The fact that the pupil is slightly (but still) physically handicapped is not a circumstance that will aid in the teacher's defense.

Back in the day my parents wanted me to learn a trade before I turned 18, even though I was doing pretty well (straight A's all the way). So I changed schools and ended up in a school where most classmates had doubled several years (at least). In the sixth year, as I was 17 going on 18, we had several 20+ pupils in attendance (well, if they bothered to show up anyway). Classes were often ... noisy.

However, not the Math-class. Everyone attended. Everyone paid attention. The rules were very clear, so clear in fact that when somebody's watch (we did not have cellphones yet) did make a noise on the hour, the person, regardless of who it was, would take of his watch, tiptoe to the front, put the watch on the teachers desk and tiptoe back ... without the teacher as much as looking up from what he was doing. The rule was that no devices were to make a noise ... and none did.

I can remember this teacher getting angry, but usually over absolute incomprehension from our end, very rarely over our conduct. In the first lesson of the year he laid down the rules ... and from the way he did that (and from the way he taught) ... you knew that the only thing that fitted this man was respect. For the rougher crowd that was sufficient, the better pupils (like me) also tried to get his respect. Mr Candau, this is now almost twenty years ago and you were not a young man then, so I hope you are enjoying your well-earned pension. I've forgotten most of my teacher's names ... but yours pops up every time I run into something Math-related ... or when teachers get in the crossfire ...

I can and will not take up the defense for the actions of the teacher in the images. But I do know this. When a teacher these days tells a pupil to leave the class, the answer often is a bold no, followed by the pupil continuing the actions that got him the remark in the first place. When a punishment-work is given, it is often not made (with approval from the parents in some cases). Put yourself in the place of such a teacher ... what would you do ? Only if the school supports you can you overcome such trials.