MY SCHOOL by Dr .Nilesh Gopal das Joshi (beginner reading books for adults .txt) 📕

process of the cultivation of certain habits, like the habits of thinking, feeling and action. It is the teacher’s function to encourage pupils in the formation of good habits and avoidance of bad ones. Good habits are of great value in matters of mental and emotional health. On the other hand, bad habits like stealing, gambling, drinking and telling lies, creates a lot of mental and emotional disturbance in the child’s mind. Acquisition of strong and healthy sentiments:

Sentiment is an attitude or a feeling towards an object or a person. It is more or less a fixed type of feeling. Sentiments are acquired. They are not natural urges. They are the foundation of the character and personality of an individual. Broadly speaking, sentiments are only particular types of habits. But they have a great influence on the mental and emotional health of an individual. A weak sentiment may cause mental illness while a strong sentiment may be a factor of strong health.

Avoidance of mental conflict:

Conflict means a state of tension caused by a struggle between two opposing impulses. Tension in one’s mind may arise because of certain environment, social or economic conditions which may stand in the way of the strong desires and wishes. In that case, a feeling of discomfort and frustration is experienced by the individual, which is extremely painful. Therefore, such conflicts may be avoided as far as possible for maintaining mental equilibrium.

Proper adjustment:

Life is a continuous process of adjustment with one’s physical and social environments. As soon as home or society fails to satisfy any or some of the needs, the individual goes out of adjustment with it. Then, the individual is said to be ‘maladjusted’. Maladjustment causes conflict and a sense of frustration, which must be avoided under all circumstances, for maintaining good health.

Faith and confidence:

Another important factor of good mental and emotional health is confidence in one’s own self and in others. Such confidence and faith keep frustration far away from the individual and enable them to live fairly comfortable even in these upsetting and insecure times.

Besides these psychological factors, mental health also depends upon certain physical factors. The foremost among them are physical health, nutritious diet and rest.

Thus, mental health is primarily concerned with the sublimation of emotions and with the development of well-adjusted personalities. An individual’s ability to adjust to life and its problems, with a reasonable degree of satisfaction, success and happiness, is a definite function of health education. So, the teacher of health education should help children in adjustment to the inner and outer strains of life in a manner which is reasonably satisfactory both to the individual and to the society, in which they live.

It is a matter of great relief that our educationists have begun to realize the importance of mental health. ‘Feeling of insecurity’ and ‘feeling of inferiority’ are the two great enemies of mental health. A knowledge of mental hygiene helps us to kill these two evils. A psychological approach is needed for that. Our attempts should be to provide suitable emotional, physical and intellectual environment in which a child may have the ‘feeling of security’ and the ‘feeling of equality’. They should feel that their personality is respected and given a suitable place in the society.

Causes of Mental Illness or Maladjustment

These are the main causes of mental illness of school children:

Disturbed home environment: It may be due to unhappy married life of parents, emotional and drunkard parents and low moral or social standards of the family. Poverty: When poor children met rich children in the school, they sometimes develop jealousy, worry and inferiority complex which lead to emotional disturbance. Faulty methods of teaching: Faulty methods of teaching do not motivate students. Lessons become dull. Students begin to hate every process of education. Then, there is emotional tension in their mind which leads to mental illness. Faulty emotional behavior of teachers: Some teachers themselves need emotional stability. Such emotionally unbalanced teachers are themselves a prey to inferiority complex, persistent worries and over-excited emotions. Innocent children may become mentally ill under such teachers. Strict discipline: Some traditional schools impose strict discipline. Their students always suffer from fear and constant worry. They have no peace of mind and tranquility of emotions. Defective physical conditions of the school: Schools with dark dingy classrooms and without any provision of extensive lawns and playgrounds bring fatigue and boredom to students. They are soon fed up with the school and its activities. Lack of equipment: In some schools, there is lack of furniture and proper equipment. Then there is over-crowding of pupils. In such conditions, pupils cannot work peacefully. There is always frustration and mental tension. Lack of educational and vocational guidance: Some schools insist on the mastery of academic subjects only without caring for the interests and aptitudes of students. This leads to frustration and emotional disturbance. No educational and vocational guidance is provided to students, at the junior, secondary, high and senior secondary stages. No aptitude tests are given. So the students are not advised to take up subjects and activities according to their mental inclination and interest. Heavy curricular and home task as well as faulty examination system: These days there is heavy load of many subjects on the minds of students. Then different subject teachers assign too much home task in their respective subjects. So the students remain constantly worried. This leads to the curtailment of their leisure and freedom which adversely affects their personality. At the end of the school session, the annual examination system also has many faults. The success or failure of a pupil depends upon this single examination only. No credit is given to his social, aesthetic, cultural and physical achievements. This leads to frustration and emotional disturbance.

Measures to Secure Mental Health

Mental health means cheerfulness, well-regulated instincts and habits, normal sex consciousness, a healthy philosophy of life, good temper, calmness and optimistic outlook. The teacher should try to provide suitable emotional, physical and intellectual environment to his pupils in which they should feel that their individuality is respected and they are assigned a suitable and secure place.

Some measures which may be adopted to secure the mental health of pupils are:

Close Pupil-teacher Contacts

The teacher should carefully observe the child in and outside the school and should know the child and their home conditions. This will develop the feeling of ‘oneness’ in the mind of the child who feels that the teacher is interested in their welfare.

Favorable Home and School Environment

Unfavorable home and school environment leads to mental disorders. Parents should be guided to adopt good methods of upbringing. The child should be free from unsatisfactory relationships and strict discipline. Treatment by the parents should be just and impartial. Too much fondling may also lead to emotional maladjustment. The treatment of the teachers should be just and fair.

Medical Examination

There should be provision for medical examination in schools and remedial measures be adopted to safeguard the health of the child. Defective physique becomes a contributory factor of mental disorder. Cases requiring special treatment should be sent to child guidance clinics.

Intellectual Life of the School

Sound methods of teaching suited to the individual needs of the child should be adopted. Activity methods. E.g. Play way, Project Method, etc. should be encouraged. Audio-visual aids develop interest in the lesson. Special time and attention must be devoted to weak students.

Provision of Educational and Vocational Guidance Centres

Schools should start such centres. It is not necessary to appoint full time psychologists in schools. Trained teachers may be asked to undergo short educational and vocational guidance course and the work of guidance be entrusted to them. For especially difficult cases, intelligence, aptitude and personality tests may be conducted.

Provision of Co-Curricular Activities

Properly planned activities are very helpful in providing much needed and useful training in civic sense. Sublimation of instincts is also achieved.

Freedom and self-discipline

Unnecessary rules and regulations greatly upset the mental equilibrium of the child. A child who breathes in an atmosphere of freedom develops initiative and courage. Severe punishments result in mental agony.

Teacher’s Mental Hygiene and Dynamic Personality

The teachers should be mentally alert to develop mental alertness in the students. They should be painstaking, sympathetic, appreciative and trusting. They should not have any prejudice which may have an adverse effect on the emotional and intellectual conditions of children. They should always have higher ideals of life before them.

Social and cultural functions

Social and cultural functions like play, recreation, dancing, singing, acting, community-dinner and many such activities, not only give pleasure to students, but also saves them from developing inferiority or superiority complex and many other mental deformities. Such functions also help in developing self-confidence and self-control and save students from mental excitement.

Yogic practices

Yoga is now forming an important part of health and physical education. Such yogic practices help a lot in securing mental health.

Functions and Responsibilities of Teachers

The teacher has a very important role to play in the School Health Service programme. He/she comes into contact with the children so often that they are likely to be the first person to notice functional signs of diseases, which appears before physical signs.

The teacher should know the signs of different diseases, incubation period after exposure, the duration of communicability and the means of transmission. The teacher has the added responsibility of reflecting health teaching in a positive way. Both the physical and mental health of the teacher must be good, for both have a strong effect upon the developing personalities with whom the teacher comes in extended contact.

The health practices and attitudes acquired by the pupils, the quality of the human relationships and the ‘emotional climate’ that exists in the room are almost without exception reflections of the behavior and example of the teacher.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF SEX EDUCATION

Sex education scientifically imparted and rightly understood plays an important role in improving the quality of life. It has also a great bearing on understanding population dynamics. There is a need for soul searching on why sex education, in spite of its importance has by and large remained neglected at various stages of education.

Talking about sex is ordinarily considered something secretive, sinful, or not worthy of mention in sophisticated and so-called cultured society. People feel very much inhibited in talking about sex. But, without sex education people cannot live a happy and well-adjusted life because it has been noted that many marital, emotional and mental problems among human beings occur as a result of the misdirection and the wrong understanding of the sex urge.

Alva Myrdal has observed: “In general more wholesome attitudes towards sex questions will not be created until they are discussed openly and as a matter of fact phenomena”.

Children ask questions about sex as the subject fascinates them and it is our answer and the way we give them that plays an important part in forming their future attitude toward sex. Frank and honest response can help them to develop a healthy outlook.

Prof. UdayShankeris of the firm opinion, “Population education without sex education is ridiculous as the ‘how’ of population control cannot be answered without sex education. Sex education is no imposition; it concerns a vital matter in which children are interested. Interest in sex is instinctive and starts from early infancy. In pre-adolescent boys and girls, the sex drive is further. Enlightenment on sexual matter is to be given intelligently and pleasantly, but gradually and methodically. There cannot be any general rules as to the time and place or manner of imparting sex education. Through the teaching of general science, biology, physiology or hygiene, a good deal of physiological knowledge about sex differences and about animal and human reproduction, involving all the process of mating, fertilization, pregnancy or birth can be imparted”.

Meaning of Sex Education

Sex education may be defined as education for the protection, preservation, improvement and development of an ideal family, enjoying quality of life with an understanding of human reproduction as its integral and inseparate part, based on accepted ethical values regarding sex.

Aims and Objectives of Sex Education

In the publication ‘School Health Education’, Prof. H. F. Kilander has given certain aims and objectives of Sex and Family Life Education.

Developing normal and wholesome