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Dealing with violent children must start with parents
– GTU General Secretary
A great deal of attention has been directed to the issue of violence in the school system. In fact the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), as the representing body for the country’s teachers, has been particularly amplifying its concern as it relates to violence perpetrated against teachers.
GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonal4
Speaking to the issue recently, GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, alluded to such situations even as she shared her conviction that the vast majority of children who so engage, do not deliberately plan on targeting the educators.
“We at the GTU don’t feel children set out to be violent against teachers; children operate based on what they hear, what they see and the way they were taught to deal with teachers,” speculated McDonald during an interview with this publication.
She further shared her conviction that oftentimes children “act out” in their quest to get the attention that they rarely, if at all, get at home. And since such actions of children are usually exhibited in a negative manner, it can at times result in corporal punishment.
“Of course, if you are going to interrupt my class for half an hour, 15 minutes, you are going to cause me to have to move from teaching proper fractions to having to deal with you,” a situation that does not lend to favourable outcomes, McDonald noted.
“A child’s attitude can keep a whole class of 35 back. When I have to deal with that child, it takes away from my lesson because by the time I am done it is the end of the period and my work is left back, which of course I have to account for…that therefore put teachers under pressure and then one thing leads to another and when some children can’t take it, they act out,” intimated the GTU General Secretary.
She pointed out that children who react in violent ways are at times also influenced by the environment in which they live. “Children who are exposed to lots and lots of violence, for them it is a part of the everyday thing, it is the way ‘we end our story, so if I don’t talk-up to you, if I don’t walk-up to you’, I would not have achieved anything, my issue would not have been solved,” said McDonald of violent children.
“Some children have a tendency of saying ‘I got to walk-up to she fuh leh she know how I rest, me ain’t deh suh’ and those kinds of slangs which is a replica of where they live,” explained an evidently concerned McDonald.
Moreover, she disclosed that the GTU has been appealing for the Ministry of Education, coupled with efforts coming from the GTU and teachers, to engage parents with a view of reversing the existing trend.
According to her, there is a need for hosting seminars, workshops and symposiums for parents as well as students and teachers, in order for them to be equipped with the kind of knowledge and skills required to deal with troubled students. “When they behave in a particular way, it is important for you to be able to recognise ‘oh here is a problem, there is a problem’ and this is how we can deal with this issue; we need to have these sessions,” asserted McDonald.
Added to this, she alluded to the need for strategic teachers’ training in order to help them readily recognise such looming situations even as she amplified that “the cane may not always be the right answer.”
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