-Aseem Saxena
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked all its affiliated schools to become “anger-free zones” where everyone including teachers, staff, and parents will try to manage their anger.
Read: CBSE asks schools to become ‘anger-free zones’ to set example
According to a study it was found that teachers are particularly vulnerable to becoming angry. Anger is just part of the experience of teaching sometimes under uncontrollable situations. Teachers don’t have a lot of control and feeling out of control can lead to anger. There are a number of people, who might be drawn to a profession like teaching in the first place because they’re kind and caring, and because they are a little more nurturing and that also may be associated with a tendency to lose your temper. In India, the profession of teaching is adopted not by choice but by chance. And this ultimate last chance makes them vulnerable to becoming angry.
Do we really believe that teachers are really becoming angry with their students? And if they become angry then the following are some of the possible reasons, which make them angry:
- Lack of control in the class.
- Disrespect from the students.
- Instructions not being followed by the students.
- Dissatisfaction from the administrators.
- Unhealthy relations with colleagues.
- Interference of parents.
- Inattentive students or laziness of students.
- Tiredness or Fatigue
- Frustration from technology
- Less resource is available in the school.
- Unavoidable family circumstances of students, which reduces his hungry for learning in the school.
- Anger over the content of the course, because the material is intrinsically making angry.
- The pressure of academic evaluation on time and unequal workload.
- Unequal distribution of salaries.
There may be many more reasons which are beyond the teacher’s control, had been missed out by me. But the most important matter is what we do with it – when we are angry and how to handle it? The moment we start to fix the dissatisfaction with the student in anger, verbally or physically and here we make a mistake and invite problem for us.
So how should teachers deal with this anger? But there are options for much of the above list. We are recommending some of the steps to overcome this problem:
Response: We are the teachers, and so our first step should be to give positive Response to the student and try to understand him. We should not react before understand the cause of our anger. It is necessary for us to be a good motivator and motivates our students too. If the student’s behaviour is the cause of our anger, then we should try to understand the root cause of the problem of student’s behaviour. After understanding his problem, we may come out of our madness of being angry.
Reaction: The next step is of positive Reaction and to control that anger so that you can use it in a positive manner. Whenever you are addressing certain issues in the class which makes you mad, always try to find a solution for the problem. Believe me that every problem has more than one solution.
Converse: The teacher can relax only by conversing and sharing with colleagues. The sharing can give you strong community building. As a teacher, you have to talk in a manner, which may not hamper the image of the student. More of positive attitude should be shown so that your friends cannot become prejudice about the student. There should be right type of conversation in the staffroom and avoid to become a contributor of toxic culture.
As a teacher, always believe in the following philosophy to be anger free: “I will show you respect, you show me respect…..”
By Aseem Saxena Faculty of Commerce, Expert in Business Studies, Trainer (Soft Skills) & Pradeep Joshi, Faculty of Economics, New Digamber Public School, Indore
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily reflect the views, thoughts, and opinions of EducationWorld.
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