No place for anger in classrooms

No place for anger in classrooms

Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal High/Scope Indonesia,
Jakarta

Anger, it is said, is a wasteful emotion. Anger, the wise say,
"blows out the lamp of the mind and leaves us in foolish
darkness". But sadly, anger is an emotion that may be commonly
encountered in our classrooms schools. If anger does indeed "blow
out the lamp of the mind" then a key objective of education --
namely the development of the mind is being significantly
undermined.

It seems to be a quite common experience here for teachers to
get angry, sometimes even to the point that they will even hit
students. Whilst teachers hitting students may be condemned,
teachers striking students is quite regularly reported.

A violent teacher is a teacher that has allowed anger to get
the better of him and he is no longer the model of calm and cool
leadership that he should be.

It has been all too easy to see students that have lost
control. Fighting school students on Jakarta's streets are not
unfamiliar sights but perhaps it is understandable that students
can lose control when they see their teachers doing likewise.

As role-models, guides and mentors for the impressionable
young, teachers have a near unspoken duty to contain their
emotions. They have to be emotionally resilient to the challenges
and temptations that may come before them emotionally.

To some extent teachers need to be emotionally detached from
the extremes of encounters in the classroom. They have to be able
to balance the extreme highs and lows of teaching that can be
faced on a daily basis. No matter how good or bad their feelings
may be, they still need to be able to maintain that cool and calm
equilibrium that is a resource and source of comfort for their
students.

It is easy for teachers to become deeply emotionally involved
with their class, but this is also perilous for both the teacher
and the students. For example, a teacher of junior high classes
recently showed himself to be depressed. It was found that he was
too emotionally involved with his teaching and material and this
meant that he was sensitive to criticism and doubts.

Apparently his class had not been responding well to his
teaching material. Certainly he was right to be reflective and
review his teaching efforts but he was wrong to allow his
emotions to overpower him and undermine his ability to return to
that class with confidence and leadership.

Likewise teachers that have allowed themselves to get angry in
a class are liable to undermine qualities of confidence and
leadership. Teachers that hit their students foster dislike,
contempt and disrespect. A leader that is able to guide through
consensus and shared respect is likely to enjoy more followers
and success than one that leads by force.

Also the notion of the student having confidence, trust, faith
and belief in the teacher is undermined if anger and violent
behaviour is allowed to be seen to rule the day.

Another common experience in Indonesian schools is to see a
talkative or disruptive student sitting or standing outside of
the classroom door. The teacher has become angry, lost control
and essentially given up on the disruptive student, forcing him
to leave the classroom and so miss out on learning.

Indeed, unfortunately, anger is something that can be learnt.
Students that see their teachers get angry gather the impression
that they too can and maybe even should get angry. A final year
high school student who was mostly regarded as a polite and quiet
student surprised many with his anger recently.

After receiving a test result and finding that his score was
lower than he expected his anger got the better of him and he
punched a hole in the plywood of his classroom's door. Although
regretful and embarrassed by what he had done it earned him a
reprimand; but just a few weeks prior to this incident one of his
teachers had similarly broken a chair within the same classroom.

Doubtless, the teacher got the attention of the class but he
had also managed to introduce destructive rage into that
classroom.

It is said that anger is momentary madness; an uncontrolled
passion that will end up controlling you. These things are
particularly worrying if we think of "uncontrolled passion" and
"momentary madness" in a classroom. These are things probably
most unwanted in a classroom.

Education critically has to address the improvement of the
mind and make students mindful of all that they do.

If teachers are unable to contain their anger,inevitably hopes
of helping students to learn "how to think" will fade. Likewise,
students may duplicate the anger of their teachers and this would
seriously setback educational objectives.