Many of us can recall a situation when we were humiliated by a teacher. If you close your eyes and recall it, it still has the power to make you cringe. And also for many of us, if we never resolved our feelings with those teachers, we still haven't forgiven them.

    Teachers choose to humiliate students for several reasons: to gain control over them, because the teacher is desperate; to frighten other students; or because they're over-compensating for their own lack of confidence. Some teachers actually think they have a 

Humiliation Is Never OK

right to humiliate a student because the student deserves it. Other teachers think that because students frequently humiliate themselves, especially online, students don't mind being humiliated -- some might even enjoy it.

Many readers of this post are in positions of influencing other teachers, both formally and informally. We all need to use our influence to provide a safe haven for all students regardless of their behavior. Here are a dozen ways to prevent students from humiliation, or to fix should you accidently embarrass a student and want to make things better.

    1. Don't give a student an embarrassing haircut.

Prevention and Repair

2. Keep communication between you and your students private when talking about behavior or academic progress.

 3. Frequently check with your students that the message they are receiving is the same one that you are sending.

 4. Avoid sarcasm, even if your students might laugh at it. Students often save face by hiding how humiliated they really feel.

5. Pay close attention to body language. Sometimes what a student is saying is not what they are feeling. If a student shows discomfort, defensiveness, or withdrawal,

make sure everything is OK between you.

6. If you notice any sudden change in a student's behavior, especially indications of withdrawal, find time as quickly as possible to make sure that you have not been hurtful to that student, even unintentionally.

7. Never write a student's name in a public place.

8. Do not praise a student for doing a simple task. This only makes them feel that you have low expectations for them.

9. Call on students equally. If a student gives a wrong

answer, don't say, "Can anybody help him?" or "Can anybody help her?" Instead, ask the student he or she would like to choose another student to be his consultant. Let him choose his or her own consultant.

10. Ask students to tell you (or preferably write you a note) about anything that they might find humiliating or embarrassing in class, and be sure not to do those things with any student that specifically informs you.

11. Always give students the right to pass when you call upon them in class.

12. Tell your students a story about a time when you

were embarrassed by a teacher, discuss it with them, and listen to their suggestions of what you could have done to resolve the incident. Come up with a class poster called, "When you are embarrassed, you can . . ." and list the best suggestions.