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The student behaviour crisis can be averted
We need to prepare children for the classroom experience
We’re seeing growing problems with student behaviour in schools. There’s an increase in school suspensions, and we often hear of the despair felt by teachers and school leadership teams about their difficulties in managing some classrooms and students.
When a classroom isn’t ordered, and teachers aren’t in control, then every student in the class will miss essential opportunities to learn. As an ex-teacher and clinical psychologist who does a lot of work in schools, I have some views about why behaviour seems so bad right now. There are a few causes.
The new parenting approach adopted by some parents has put much more emphasis on showing high levels of care to children and less emphasis on children meeting minimum age-appropriate behaviours. This means that some kids get the sense that their wishes are at the centre of any situation.
While newborn babies dictate the actions of the family, this needs to change slowly in later years. Thus, as they grow up, they need to start to fit in with others more. In this, they need to gradually grasp the idea that there are minimum behavioural expectations required of many situations, and that they need to adhere to these.
