Co-educational System was meant to foster competition, do away with curiosity about the opposite sex and to build healthy relationships- both emotional and interpersonal. Unfortunately, our laxity, non-availability of a well defined policy, confusion prevailing between modernisation and traditional values and the absence of an Adolescent Education/Sex Education Programme in our Schools has led to severe problems. We come across cases of puppy loves at much junior classes and some teachers take delight in making fun of these, rumour mongering, gossiping and making young children conscious of their infatuations. There are scores of cases where the teachers have been found love -sick and setting a bad example before students. Teachers of opposite sexes have been seen dating each other, flirting and news travels to students. On many occasions teachers have got married after a protracted so -called affair and continue to work in the same School. There are instances of teachers marrying students and even some Heads of Institutions have been found guilty of moral turpitude. This is the example we are setting. On the other hand, the Media sensationalises every incident and the young fall a prey to their emotions.
If we study a few chapters of Freudian Psychology about the development of sexual urge at various stages of Growth and Development, read about the Seven Stages of Moral Development and study literature on Emotions and how to sublimate and channelize Emotions; I am sure we will find many answers to our problem. But that will not be enough. Let us ask ourselves, are we ready to execute some strategies, experiment and use a multi-pronged approach to the problem. If our answer is yes; I suggest the following:
> Introduce a Programme of Adolescent/Sex Education in our Schools. The CBSE had already engaged an Expert and the Expert would travel to various States and Regions and train the Teachers. Find out about this Programme.
> Call Senior Doctors who are Specialists to talk to our students on Health, Hygiene, Habits and Sex related Issues.
> Organise Debates, Presentations by Students on Topics related to the Issue and let students express their views freely. Ask them for their suggestions.
> Have a very congenial Academic Climate, where the focus is on dedicated Scholarships, healthy interactions for exchange of views, information, joint surveys and projects. Ensure that students are always busy and never left free, unsupervised or idle.
> Trust them and build a climate of mutual trust. Do not suspect, do not allow rumours to be spread and accept emotions and feelings as natural.
> Have a proper Dress Code for students and Staff. Do not allow any laxity in this. Take Students and Staff into confidence while deciding this. The students need to understand that we want them to look decent, elegant and beautiful. They have to be ladylike and gentlemanlike.
> Introduce a variety of Co-curricular Activities of all types and see that students get an opportunity of spending their spare energy, exploring their talent and canalize their emotions. Sometimes, dance, theatre and other performance may help in Catharsis and per rogation of emotions.
> Talk to them often, make them speak and even call parents to speak to them. They are being exposed to a lot of influences of varying types' why can't we provide enough examples of positive behaviour and these have to be real life stories.
> Be a Role Model. See that all Teachers are Role Models.
> Have Trained and adequately qualified Counsellors on Staff and they should be available for help, counselling and advice.
> Have a Student Body-Boys and Girls- assigned the specific task of counselling cases that seem to suffer infatuation and drift away from expected behaviour patterns.
> Be firm and yet caring.
Wishing you the very Best
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You have rightly raised this issue about managing emotions by our young adolescents. This is what I wanted to work on. Catharsis of their emotions and channelizing them in a positive direction is the key to solving these problems of erratic behaviour by our adolescents. Even in western countries where there is free sex, they have started realizing importance of keeping these emotions under control which is vital if we want to nurture a generation of healthy individuals.
The requirement of setting good examples both by the teachers and parents is of utmost importance. Equally important is the requirement of keeping them busy which will work as a two pronged instrument- one it will keep them away from any negative influences and two- it will help them in using their talents creatively and thus ensure their positive development. Today when both parents are working and students have exposure to lots of influences in the form of TV channels and internet, they are very suseptible to fall prey to negative influences.
What I feel is that that they can be shown some good documentaries about the people whose life they can emulate as role models in the absence of which they make film stars their role models.
Wishing you all the best,
Abha
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