By Aishwarya Sharma
We’re influenced a great deal by our childhood and adolescence years, particularly the years of schooling in our lives. The friends, the teachers, the classes, the activities, all of it. We’ve particularly been accustomed to getting up at six in the morning, rushing to get ready and running towards the assembly venues practically everyday. There’s the homework stress, the Tiffin sharing, and so many other customary events in school life that have been a part of our lifestyle since times immemorial. But probably there’s more to school life than just all of this. As we advance, we’re exposed to a number of negative factors that impede the successful academic performance of students. And it’s imperative for us to actually talk about these problems and stop underestimating them because ultimately, we’re losing out on our students’ peace and sanity. Research has shown that school transitions, which often are characterized by many social and academic stressors, have negative effects on academic motivation, performance, and school engagement, as well as on emotional well-being. In particular, Karen Rudolph and colleagues demonstrated in 2001 that the experience of school-related stress (such as poor academic performance, negative feedback from parents and teachers about school work, and daily hassles in the school environment) leads to increases in depression in the context of a transition into middle school.
We can no longer experience a conducive and harmonious environment in educational institutions today. Depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, inferiority complexes, baggages, etc are some prominent problems highlighted through ages of study, survey, conjecture and thorough observation. Reluctance to come to school is one problem that has been prevalent today as a result of various negative elements existing in the school environment. For Nisha*, a class 12 student studying in a reputed public school, coming to school becomes a painful ordeal. As a result, she shows a poor attendance and low level of receptiveness in the classroom scenario. She comments, "I hardly want to go to school now, I’m in class 12, and I want to get out of here as soon as possible. My teacher points out at me unnecessarily, I’m already depressed because of my low grades, and even if I don’t get any moral support here, I’m demoralized by my teachers and I hate my classmates. That’s why I frequently remain absent and I will even forfeit the picnic I was so eager to go to, because my heart aches to see how people discourage me".
Moreover, there is a widespread phenomenon of crab mentality existing in practically all schools today. It’s nice to be competitive, and appreciable to try and be better than others, but it is absolutely unethical to put the other person down in order to raise your own selves. This mentality has risen due to a particular type of conditioning and environments imparted to students that pollutes their mindset to a great deal, as a result, we might produce an unhealthy generation in the future because of the presence of such negative inclinations in them. As we’re giving an opportunity for vindictiveness to grow, the impacts are visible in the school going youngsters in their behaviours and attitudes, both the attackers as well as the victims.
Stressful experiences and emotional difficulties resulting from crab mentality are therefore likely to undermine a variety of school-related competencies, including academic motivation and school engagement, goal orientation, scholastic performance, and school conduct.Crab mentality might also be resulting from low levels of self esteem in students, compelling them to indulge in negative activities and develop destructive mindsets.
Another problem we face today, but are reluctant to talk about is the negative attitudes of teachers towards students. Blame it on the paucity of resources, that leads to shortage of teachers today, we can observe a crowd of teachers ready to tarnish the students’ futures by virtue of their polluted mindsets and mean minded games. It might be attributed to commercialization and the lack of dedicated teachers today, but the fact is that the students are losing out because of this, and we’re quite unlikely to raise a good generation in the future since so many anomalies and catastrophes exist at the grass root level.
Let us clearly understand the classroom dynamics to have a deeper view of the scenario. A class consists of three types of students, Dissipaters, Distracters, and Spectators. Dissipaters are the fortunate lot, admired by teachers, and in many cases, the so called teachers’ pets, they receive a fair deal of attention as well as appreciation, the Distracters are the problem creators as is clear from the name, and probably the maximum attention goes to them, because they create the maximum trouble. The most problematic of all the three are the Spectators, quiet, timid, and withdrawn, teachers hardly notice them, and thus, fail to take note of their problems because even they’re hesitant to share or open up. Depression has been linked to a range of negative school-related outcomes, including poor grades, a lack of persistence in the face of academic challenges, and decreased classroom participation. There are many cases of students turning from dissipaters to spectators due to politics and partiality in their school environment. Depression and lack of recognition or encouragement are some factors responsible. Amrita, a class 12 student was an active participant in school activities, but because of the politics of the teachers, she has withdrawn from all participation. A debater, musician, sportsperson, artist, and actor, she stopped participating in school events because her teachers weren’t supporting her. "I really don’t understand what problem my teachers have with me. Just because I’m good in a number of things, everyone is after my life, harassing me, pointing out at me, doubting my caliber, and criticizing me, being jealous of me. And that even includes teachers. So if I’m not getting respect in my school, I will not participate in anything and waste my time. I go for a number of activities outside my school, without letting them know, because I’m not interested in taking any appreciation from people who’re always against me. I hate school, but when I’m outside, I don’t really care."This seems to be a case of the tall poppy syndrome. When a man goes into a field full of poppy flowers, and randomly moves his stick, the flowers that will break off and fall first will be the taller flowers, in the same way, the people who’re gifted and multitalented fall prey to crab mentality, politics and mean mindedness.
Whatever it is, we’re losing out on a stable minded generation and have created a number of possibilities for criminal and unfavourable tendencies in students today, so before it gets too late, let’s create better schools for our kids today so that we can ensure a brighter future for them.
