Shahbaz Rasheed Bhoru
Emotions are the natural and outward expressions of our body in the state of being alive, influenced by both internal and external eliciting events. Psychological analysis of emotions has led to the formulation of six basic emotions: sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. No human being is devoid of these basic emotional expressions. These emotions come into play either through some internal eliciting force or an external eliciting event.
Emotions, in their nature and origin, are not as simple as they appear in their expressions. Without getting occupied with the technical discussions of emotions, we will try to deal simply with the emotional management of students within the classroom.
A classroom is, indeed, a sacred place for learning wisdom and life skills; however, at the same time, it can also be treated as an agora or intellectual hangout where students may develop emotional connections or emotional mesmerism with one another or even with their teachers. This emotional mesmerism can be both positive and negative, and both forms can significantly affect classroom effectiveness.
For example, a student under emotional temptation or excitement may engage in distracting behaviors such as winking, touching another student’s back or leg, or other inappropriate interactions. Such actions can lead to emotional disturbance among the students involved, making them unable to focus effectively on their studies and ultimately causing classroom disruption. This emotional deregulation on the part of students is as detrimental to the classroom environment as a classroom without a teacher.
Besides this, baseless fear of teachers, fear of fellow students, academic complexity, school administrative pressure, and even a teacher’s personality can be highly harmful to a student’s learning abilities, with effects that may remain throughout his or her life. Under the influence of sadness or disgust, arising from irregularities in their domestic life, classroom imbroglio can weaken a student’s intellectual and learning foundation, from which their voyage toward success is generally expected to begin. With such a loose and fragile foundation, academic debacle is likely to befall a student’s academic life.
“Unchecked emotional impulsivity in students can harden into a permanent personality trait, making the unhealthy behavior difficult to break and ultimately damaging their social standing. Because the classroom is meant to teach life skills rather than just career preparation, managing these emotional impulses is crucial.”
In such an obnoxious environment, parents and teachers can manage a student’s emotional crisis through coordination and cooperation. A teacher is not only meant to impart knowledge, but is also destined to manage the emotional well-being of students through counseling and motivational skills. Students must learn to control their emotional bursts by learning through focussing and self-discipline. Attention perversion is one of the most drastic outcomes of emotional mismanagement in the classroom.
If a student is attentive, he becomes productive; and if he is productive, he is more likely to be successful. Positive emotions—such as the motivation to read, write, learn, and observe—can be highly beneficial if they are not accompanied by excessive emotional expression. That is why I mentioned at the very outset that even positive emotional mechanisms, when uncontrolled, may become harmful; however, when kept under control, they can prove extremely fruitful.
Students often try to attract the attention of their classmates by smiling unnecessarily or becoming overactive in the classroom so that their peers may perceive them as clever and highly active.
This false perception creates artificial happiness and a temporary surge of dopamine in the mind, but at the same time lay the foundation of their failure in academic and personal life. Such emotional impulsiveness on the part of students must be checked and controlled, because if left unchecked, this negative behavior may gradually become a permanent part of their personality. As a result, instead of trying to avoid such unhealthy behaviors, students often find it very difficult to get rid of them, ultimately leading to their diminished social standing. The classroom is a place to learn life, not merely to earn a living.
(The author is a freelancer. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
