Sunday, February 12, 2012

mirror of the adult

SreeNair | 8:37 AM | | |

A Class 9 student of a private school in Chennai stabbed his teacher to death inside the classroom on Thursday morning. He was apparently enraged by the teacher’s complaint to his parents about his poor performance in his studies.

Police said Uma Maheshwari, 40, a teacher of science and Hindi at St Mary’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School on Armenian Street, was between classes, around noon when she was attacked by the 15-year-old student.Indian Express reported.

The 15-year-old boy will now face a trial which will be conducted by a juvenile justice board (JJB), consisting of a metropolitan magistrate and two social workers: says the Hindu. The St Mary’s Anglo India School, where the incident occurred catered to the local children near a crowded Armenian Street in the old commercial capital of the city, opposite to the High Court.

On the same day a case has been reported from Alleppey in Kerala in which a student of final semester Engg got his ear seriously bitten and disfigured by his class mate following a petty skirmish between them.

It was 4 years back, an youngster was reported to have broken in to a music class and shot at a music student killing her instantly.This was in the campus of ViswaBharathi University founded by Ravindra Nadh Tagore.

Reports came in from Aurangabad near Delhi wherein a boy was shot dead as an aftermath of a run in between a gang feud.The incident took place in an International school where closed circuit TVs were installed to watch the students!

In another similar incident a boy was shot dead in Deccan engineering college at Darusalam,Hyderbad as part of a shuffle between warring factions of students.

Lately a Kerala boy was brutally attacked and bladed all over the face and body by his seniors while in train on his way back to his house ,from their college at Coimbathore .
These are only some of the most recent events being reported in the press.

We hitherto were undaunted as we were largely safe in our cocoons of self imposed myth ,that such cases will not surface in our society.We have an inheritance of cherished age old values and social mores to lead us.But no longer we can settle safe ,as the message pouring in from news rooms do not auger well for the country.

The recent news from Chennai is nevertheless haunting and deeply disquieting. One should genuinely feel concerned on the future of the country when our youngsters do not refrain from such activities.Unbridled liberty and hand full of money to squander coupled with the atom family background -when the fruit of education is only academic brilliance -small wonder ,our students are increasingly getting bereft of humaneness and compassion.The history of their progenitors acquiring education through hard ship and toil are only 'grandma-stories' for them.None care to suffer a small inconvenience.

The parents are the roll model for the children in the early formation of their behavior patterns in society.God fearing,consciousness of the social values are first to be inculcated from home and then from teachers and educational institutions.The parents upping the lux scale,squandering,laisses- fair can not indulge in pontification on the do's and dont's to their kith and kin.

Today campuses are not only political play grounds but also are the wombs of gangsterism.These incidents have posed deeply disquieting questions on teaching,parenting and the sociocultural premises in the country.

Therefore too much of leniency shown to the children by ignoring their acts of malfeasance often breeds waywardness among children and gives rise to acts of delinquency which are dangerous to the safety, security of our society.So leniency could be the other cause of delinquency.It however doesn’t mean that they should be straitjacketed in boundless censorship and proscriptions.The rudderless youth belligerently chaff at the censorship and other proscriptions imposed on them.

A number of factors at play are being identified by the academicians and professionals in the realm of juvenile delinquency.

According to psycho-analytical view, the delinquent is an individual who is governed by the pleasure principle. He wants to get immediate pleasure and immediate satisfaction for his needs. So he becomes victim to his own impulses. Thus it may be said that juvenile delinquency is also the result of environmental factors.

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The main factors in breeding young delinquents are peer pressure, lavish lifestyles, too much freedom from the parents and even simple curiosities.In 2008 crimes by juveniles across India increased by about 9.2%over the previous year. The figure in 2007 was 8.4% more over 2006.According to the police sources,the crime ratio in children were 1.7% of the total crimes in the country in 2005 .It increased to 1.9% and 2% in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Juvenile Delinquency can be checked at a very primary stage and measures can be taken both at home as well as in school to help bring children out of this characterization. As is evident,it is not just the will of an individual which makes him get into the world of wrong deeds, all other factors like schools, neighborhood, Family, Society etc are equally responsible for the degradation or fall of a child.

Child is to be regarded as technically a delinquent when his anti­social tendencies appear so grave that it becomes subject of official action. The effects films have on the tender minds of our children are much talked out and has become a hackneyed cliche.Violence in films are always pointed to whenever such incidences take place.

Violence in the media, whether it is reflected in music, games, cartoons, T.V. shows or movies, legitimizes and glorifies it in the young mind. Online and offline bullying peaks in Middle School and in most cases tapers off by College age, when students are more independent and more mature. Lack of coordination among school staff, parents and students make cyber- and offline bullying- a continual threat to young people's confidence and safety.The home and the neighborhood have an immense influence on children. Violent children are most likely to come from abusive homes and/or neighborhoods.

Janet Reis of the University of Illinois, and her colleagues surveyed nearly 112,000 students in grades 6 through 8 with geographically, socioeconomically, and racially diverse backgrounds from about 200 middle schools.The school had a relatively modest but nonetheless significant effect on student aggression.

They found three key features of a school’s culture linked with reduced aggressive behaviors: teaching that emphasized understanding over memorization of concepts; whether students participated in making school rules; and education about cultural diversity."The direction from this is that teachers and administrators might explore how to include participation from their students," Reis said.

The children are the mirrors directed against the adult world.They are the physical manifestations of the adult psyche,the unedited content of the grown up.Therefore it will be simplistic to confine the aberrations to the pocket money,films etc.

Adults have to be changed


Delinquency appears to be strongly on the rise and teachers say it's a daily struggle to control school violence Demetriou said: "Don't say what you wouldn't like to be told. Don't do what you wouldn't like to be done to you. Don't search for your identity in conflict and violence just because it gives you a sense of power. Find it in your goodwill, constructive relations with others, and the pleasure of your presence. There is your strength."

Cyprus-Education Minister Andreas Demetriou on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the UN Convention on Children's Rights.


 

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