SCHOOLING THE KID - EPISODES 26 TO 30 FOCUS- PRIMARY CLASSROOMS

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-26

The primary classrooms

1. The classroom and the school environment have to be child friendly.

It is important that the ergonometric design of the classroom takes note of all the

basic requirements of the child. Some issues which need attention are:

• The location
• Access to the classroom
• The position of the blackboard

Sometimes the students have to:

o   Walk long distances to reach the classroom

o   Walk through dusty ground to reach the classroom

o   Cross the school bus traffic or cycle traffic inside the campus

o   Get through many staircases to reach the floor or the room

These could be avoided to prevent the students becoming tired mentally before they enter the classroom

2. The formative classes may be kept at a distance from the classroom of the senior students 

In some schools the students have to cross through classrooms where the senior students are to attend. Groups of adolescent students standing on the way and talking, gossiping and interacting could have an impact on the minds of the students. Sometimes senior students running around might collide against the youngsters. These could be avoided by keeping the classrooms of the senior students at farther places or in separate floors. Whenever difficulties in the interaction between the younger children and the senior students are observed, the teachers should bring

3. The classroom has to be airy and should have sufficient light. 

The students in the primary/nursery classes are likely to become physically tired quickly and fall asleep or become drowsy. Absence of adequate light or air catalyzes this process and hence the students may lose their attention, motivation or interest in the learning. It is important to take care of these minimal requirements. 

4. The furniture should be specifically designed to suit to the needs of the students. 

All types of furniture would not suit the comfort level of the young students. It is important to design furniture which would specifically (taking the ergonometric requirements in view) suit these students. The material, the size, the height, the seating space, leg room and several other issues need to be considered while planning. The comfort level of the furniture has a significant role to play in enhancing the attention, the quality of learning, the quality of peer as well as teacher-child interactions.

5. Arrangements of furniture should be done in a way that does not threaten the privacy and personal freedom of the learner. 

Very often furniture is arranged in a linear fashion as is done in lecture rooms. In the formative classes, the learning is multifold and highly interactive. Hence arrangement of furniture has to facilitate the process. Furniture ill organized tend to affect the personal freedom of the learner in terms of mobility, sitting postures, writing postures, visibility, audibility and interaction with peers. Round table arrangements, distributive participation models and other differential patterns could be adopted as per the nature of the subject and time.

6. Prototype of classical classrooms exhibiting the authority of the teacher has to be dispensed with. 

The position of the teacher in the classroom conveys a lot of meaning. While the position of the teacher should indicate the access, approach, equity, visibility and audibility, any position that would show a sense of militant authority should be avoided. The position and posture of the teacher may create mental blocks on the young minds and feelings of fear, suspicion and threat may be felt by the child. Hence the teacher should be mobile, show flexible postures exhibiting reasonable intimacy and ownership to the child.

7. The classrooms should have easy access to wash rooms. 

The young children are often tempted to use the washrooms. On many occasions they tend to rush in the last minute without lack of control. Sometimes indigestion due to the food brought and consumed by them leads to stomach disorders compelling them to use the washrooms. Teachers often tend to silence them and do not let them move instantaneously sometimes leading to avoidable discomfort. It is therefore important if the classrooms are in the same floor and reasonably close to the classrooms. Elevations to the washrooms, access to the relief basins and wash taps should be designed taking into consideration their requirements.

  

8. The classrooms could be preferably designed in such a way that either the play ground or an amphitheatre is accessible. 

Some schools tend to have a mini-playground or an amphitheatre attached to the primary classrooms. That helps the students to organize themselves in proximity and move from the classrooms without any hindrance. Further they could be saved from injuries and dust.

G.Balasubramanian

  

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-27

The Role of the teacher

The teachers should keep the following points in their mind while entering a classroom for effective transaction:

1. The teachers should avoid militant or aggressive postures. 

Both verbal and non-verbal communication has a great impact on the young minds. They tend to set attitudes and emotional structures in the minds of the learners. Hence adoption of aggressive and non-militant postures and use of such body language has an impact on the learning pattern. Sometimes they tend to set at naught the interests of the learners in as these postures are highly inhibitive.

2. The teachers should be mobile and exhibit good inter-personnel relationship.

As intensive learning takes place more at the zone of intimacy or proximate zone at the formative level teachers need to exhibit a good inter-personal relationship. The following points are worthy of consideration:

1. A pleasing smile
2. A word of appreciation
3. An act of motivation
4. Helping to improve self-image
5. A sense of justice and equity 

That apart, teachers should be reasonably mobile. Mobility facilitates freedom, a greater universe for approach and participation, an access and flexibility.

3. The teachers should be communicative. 

Communication does not necessarily refer to the use and practice of language and vocabulary. Communication is complete only when the message reaches the listener in the same way it is conceived. Distortion of communication takes place either due to excessive thrust or inadequate thrust on the required fields of communication.

Adoption of role play, songs, and other histrionic skills as effective tools for expression are important. 

4. The verbal language should be soft, personal and persuasive. 

Students are likely to fall into emotional inadequacies if treated in a rude or an indifferent manner. They fall into an identity crisis on developing a sense of inferiority. Hence, they have to be handled carefully through soft, personal and persuasive language. The language used by the teacher should be supportive, healing and encouraging. Verbal admonitions with contemptuous language have to be avoided as they are likely to cause not only emotional trauma on the learner, but sometimes the consequent shame or remorse, may lead to avoidable suicides or other social problems.

5. Discouraging, suspicious and comparative statements have to be avoided. 

Statements that would discourage a learner like “Stupid, incorrigible fellow, useless guy” have to be avoided. Maligning a child in the presence of others, comments which are not warranted for a situation should not be used. Comparison of any two children in the class on two non-comparable can be a serious misadventure. Special care has to be taken especially while dealing with children who are differentially -abled or partial challenges.

6. Statements and actions that would generate stress, anxiety and isolation should be avoided. 

Sometimes verbal statements of teachers do generate stress and anxiety among the students. Some of these statements may be intended to speed up the activities of the learners; some of them are of comparative nature with others; some of the statements could be on the habits and mannerisms of the child. These do have a direct or indirect impact on the psyche of the learners. Teachers should consciously avoid such statements.

Let us see a few more points the teachers should keep in their mind in the next issue

G.Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-28

The Role of the teacher ( continued from the previous issue)

7. Students should not be stopped or curtailed from speaking or curtailing their emotions. 

The learners of the formative stage often tend to speak or act in a spontaneous manner. Their words or emotions come without any inhibition and in the natural order. Any attempt to curb or curtain these responses of the learner may have a negative value. While it is important that we should help them to follow some order, outright rejection of these statements or asking them to remain quiet while they want to give some responses may be demotivating to the learners.

8. Punitive statements and actions have to be avoided. 

Statements and actions which are exclusively punitive in nature have to be dispensed with. Such statements have a retrograde effect on the growth pattern of the learners. Sometimes they induce negative emotions like fear, anxiety, regret, jealousy, enmity etcl, They may also lead to withdrawal symptoms on the part of the learners leading to denial of enterprise, risk-taking, adventure and kill the imaginative faculties.

9. Statements that would reflect on the physical stature, inadequacies, behavioural patterns, mannerisms and family traits shall not be made. 

Personal statements relating to the physical stature, body features, health inadequacies, family traits and other mannerisms have to be totally avoided. These  to development of inferiority, aggressive responses, and misadventures. These may also lead to development of low esteem and kill the creative faculties. Sometimes they lead to violent responses and assault on the teachers or other fellow students. They also may lead to development of set attitudes. Very often the inhibitive mind set of certain students is borne out of such statements.

10. Teachers should avoid generalizations. 

There is a tendency on the part of most teachers to “generalize” issues and making a comment or a holistic observation. Statements like “Suresh is incompetent” are too much a generalized statement. This observation might come from a mathematics teacher who finds Suresh inadequate in her subject. Suresh’s lack of interest in the subject may be due to several reasons. However, he may be too good in painting, a good composer, a good sportsman or may have several other latent talents which a student good enough in Mathematics doesn’t have. A generalized statement might have a serious and long-term impact on the profile of the learner. Teachers need to understand that the learner has to be assessed in context and any generalized statement is neither valid nor does make a meaning.

11. Do not Brand students. 

Branding of students based on caste, community, language, family background creates jealousy and ill-will among the students especially with their peers. They have an impact on the content and methods of their learning.

12. The learners should be encouraged to exhibit ownership with the class, the peers and the teacher. 

The accomplishment of any task becomes effective when the individual becomes possessive about it. It gives a sense of belongingness and ownership.  Every task becomes personal and it enhances the commitment of the learner towards the task. Teachers should take all possible efforts to create an ambience in the classrooms which would enhance the level of ownership of the students towards the classroom and the school. Concepts of neatness, order, adherence to rules and regulations would all be possible once the ownership for the organization is built.

13. Students who feel insecure and lost have to be quickly and effectively rehabilitated to the mainstream through appropriate strategies and should not be allowed to hang on with insecurity for long. 

It is quite possible that some students may feel lost or out of suit in the new environment. It is also possible that some students might get into some minor psychological depressions in the formative stage due to the following reasons:

·         Initial formal separation from the family

·         Inability to cope with the new physical environment

·         Inability to cope with the new peers

·         Inability to cope with changing food timings/food patterns

·         Inability to cope with the noise level in the school

·         Inability to cope with the personality and methods of the teacher

·         Inability to cope with learning process

It is important that the school and the teachers should take all possible initiatives to de-stress the child from all the above possible psychological issues and rehabilitate them. The longer is the duration for rehabilitation the lesser is the ability of the child to cope. It would be advisable to look into the individual cases, consult the members of the family and take their assistance. It may also be advisable to seek the help of the child psychologists wherever found necessary.

G.Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-29

Some problems children face in the classrooms

There are several issues which relate to the privacy of the learners in the school environment which needs to be understood and handled.

Some of these are:

1. The child is uncomfortable with the uniform, tie, shoes or other personal ware and they are unable to communicate. 

In a large number of cases the students who have been trained to live with casual dresses at home, are now required to wear tailor-made formal dresses. They are required to follow a dress code. Some of features dress codes are quite often not conducive to the local climate or geo-cultural features. However the schools tend to prescribe them to project an image of the school. Some causes for the discomfort are:

• The fittings are tight
• The colour of the uniform is not liked by the child
• The tie is not comfortable
• The student has to sit for long hours with the shoes
• There is a lot of sweating inside the socks
• Some schools tend to insist wearing a coat, a blazer or additional wear

      There could be several other reasons too which the child is unable to communicate.

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2. The child is hungry and is unable to tell the teacher. 

Very often, parents tend to hurry up with the breakfast of the child in the morning. Sometimes the school sessions are so early that the child has no inclination for an early breakfast and takes the same under the compulsion of the parents. It may cause indigestion. Sometimes they tend to overeat under compulsion leading to stomach discomfort. There are cases where the child does not eat adequately in the morning and feels hungry quite early. Change of timings of food from home to school is another issue with which the child tends to cope.  A hungry child as well as a child is thus unable to communicate with the teacher for the following reasons: 

• Feeling of shame
• Fear of the self-image being affected
• Fear  of being reprimanded publicly
• Fear of being ridiculed in the presence of others

Teachers need to understand the above critical issues which are quite personal for each child and help them to overcome these problems.

3. The child wants to use the washrooms and is inhibited from expressing. 

In the early childhood, the children find it difficult to control the call of nature. In many cases fear, stress, anxiety and several psychological issues lead to a requirement of releasing the body waste products at unscheduled times. There are cases when children tend to urinate in the classroom out of fear. Generally children also have a tendency to go to a wash room when some other child opts to go. Teachers often find that such demands are bogus, concocted and tend to ignore them or silence them. Such refusals are incorrect. Teachers shall appreciate the needs of children – both psychological and physiological and help them to sort out the issues.

4. The child is having some sickness and is unable to understand 

Many young children suffer from diseases and health disorders which have not been identified or they are not able to communicate. Some simple disorders include:

• Dust allergy
• Bronchitis
• Tooth disorders
• Stomach upsets
• Skin allergies
• Stammering
• Poor visibility
• Colour blindness
• Hearing disorders
• Epilepsy
• Psychological depression 

Teachers should be able to understand the limitations arising out of such inconveniences in the process of learning. This calls for a continuous dialogue with the parents, sometimes with the assistance of the school counselor. Quite often parents tend to hide some of these problems from the school authorities and inform only when the child faces a crisis in the school premises.

        We will consider some more concerns in the next issue

     G.Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-30

5. The child is feeling sleepy and is unable to do so. 

In many cases when the child enters the premises of the school, the scheduled sleep hours of the children at home may be different. They might have the practice of sleeping during the day time. Suddenly when they enter the school and are required to keep awake and show their attention and concentration, they may not be in a position to cope. Teachers may find the child sleeping during the course of an active class or unable to bestow any attention feeling drowsy.

Teachers should know that these are normal problems of a change management process in the formative years of schooling. Such children should be taken separate care of and helped to get into the mainstream slowly through attitudinal change.

6. The child is disturbed psychologically by some events at home and lives with it.

Verbal and physical abuses of the child at home are a matter of great concern. Many times the children are unable to speak it out openly and brood over them when alone. They carry the pain or the emotional trauma associated with such experiences even to the classroom. It is very difficult to understand the background or the context of such events. Sometimes even parents do not come to know of such abuses as child associates such things with a personal shame and assault on their ego.

3. The child is obsessed with parental conflicts and the mind is preoccupied emotionally.

Quite often conflicts and quarrels between parents and other family members might have a serious impact on the behavioural pattern, life style and the learning process of the students. The “speed syndrome” of the morning hours in most families is associated with a patterned tension and the child is trained to carry such a tension alongside to the school. The inability of the parents to adjust to their own timings as well as to that of the child,  deprives of both what they are due during those stages of growth.

  

The children understand the parental conflicts easily: 

·         Through their verbal exchanges

·         Through their body language

·         Through the drama of activities

·         Through the emotional outbursts

·         Through the responses received for the questions

·         Through the support system available at a point of time

The child compares oneself with peers and feels inferior or defeated.

4. The child is prejudiced with the love and care exhibited to a peer by the parents in the absence of a similar treatment.

A common thing among school going children is their observation of the comfort level and the utilities available to their neighbours and peers. Quite often this may lead to a sense of inadequacy, low self-esteem, jealousy and possibly violent outburst too.

Some reasons for such prejudices could be:

·         There is a visible economic disparity in the family background of any two students

·         There is a social disparity between the peers

·         The support systems available for a pair of students are different

·         The learning style and behaviour are different

·         There is a greater exposure to one child as against the other

·         The love and care for a particular child is unavailable to the other child

·         The parents of one child come from an educated background while other is not

·         The child believes another to have greater personal attention in the classroom or a preferred status

·         The health status of one child could be superior to another child

·         The child feels insecure in the company of the other due to bullying or other reasons

·         There is an inferiority in one because of the food items brought and consumed by another

·         A particular child has an extrovert personality while the other is an introvert

There could be several other reasons for the prejudices. While it may not be possible for the teacher and the school to seek remedies for all the above, nevertheless it is very important that teachers tend to observe and locate the causes of such issues so that they can be appropriately responded either by the teacher or through any other intervention.

G.Balasubramanian