Every classroom has “clown”, “bully”, “geek”,
“scholar”, “good for nothing” and the list of such adjectives goes on..
I would like to narrate one incident between two girls who meet at reunion of school,
Ruchita and Payal were classmates in school and the conversation begins as follows:
Ruchita:
Hey fatso! (Payal) what are you upto these days?
Payal:
I am doing nothing great, but I am sure you must have got admission in top college after all you were the scholar of our class.
Ruchita:
Nothing like that even you were favourite of many teachers. Do you remember that geek of our class? he keeps sending me texts.
Payal:
Oh yeah! Loser! Look at the Clown of our class, there he is! Still the same na?
These labels are not harmful but they are telling us the truth of deep impression of people that we have in our classroom, created in such a manner that they become our identity. Such types of labels are interior part of our classroom and we keep using them in every now and then.
It’s not that the labelling is among students, the teachers are also part of it. A common practice by many teachers is that the students who obey them and gets high marks are good students. Now the question over here is, students with bad academics record but high moral value will still be considered as bad student? If student completes all the assignments on time then he/she is clever but, does this interpret that being clever is confined only with completing the assignments on time?
Teachers teach the same syllabus over and over for years. This becomes routine so once they see students coming to class, sitting up front and becoming engaged in the learning process, it sends the message to the professor that these are “good” students and will more than likely do well in the course. They learn those students’ names and pay more attention to their completed assignments.
Therefore me as a teacher keeps wondering that is teaching a partial profession?
The worst part over here is once a child’s reputation has began to circulate in staffroom, canteen or among parents then it becomes harder to recognise them as a good student again even if they achieve great success.
Now, consider the following scenario,
Scene-1:
Sujeet is a very intelligent boy. he Stands first in academic be it any subject he gets a first rank but after board exam when the result came out he ends up scoring less mark. what must have happened?
actually, excellent, very good, A grade, ten on ten these words demotivated him and he felt that even if he doesn’t work hard he will hold first rank.
Scene-2:
Tom is always humiliated and Bullied by his peers and teachers for not understanding simple formulae so he stopped coming to school.
So, as a teacher, sometimes, we become source of bad motivation (consciously or unconsciously). Giving positive or negative labels can affect self esteem of students.
Scene-3:
It is not correct to give the better grades then what a student really deserve and give nice comments and feedback every time. The teachers also has to tell the students that everything is possible if he/she gets a bad grade and at least try to encourage. If a teacher tells one of the student that they are good for nothing then they are definite to lose motivation which is a very bad thing.
I would like to highlight few points for Teachers that can help to overcome such difficulty:
- Believe that there is always scope of improvement.
- Help children to grow psychologically, emotionally, mentally and academically.
- If you are offended by some behavior of student than condemn the act not student.
- Do not be judgemental and biased among the students.
- Do not believe the generalized statement given by others, make your own judgement and take fair actions.
- Do not disown any child due to some disability, rather help them to overcome.
- Do not under or overestimate child.
- Be conscious with your vocabulary, some words can affect child’s self esteem.
- Know that you as a teacher are judged by students too
Conclusion
Lastly, smile! It projects kindness, empathy and sympathy.
Labels have both positive and negative effects. Everything is always a matter of balance, and we can all make a difference by countering the stigma, by adjusting our expectations and by giving them all the possible opportunities to thrive, no matter what code or label they may carry in their backpack
“ People are too complicated to have simple labels. ( quote by Philip Pullman)
