Are we raising criminals?

 

I would like to share with you few points I discussed with the two persons. The government school teacher shared an example with us-- a boy, whose bike's pressure horn irritated his colleague so much that she decided to confront this irritant boy. 

 

The boy let the teacher vent her anger on him. But after that helooked straight into her eyes and gave a big tight slap on her face. 

 

This is nothing compared to what the class nine student from Chennai did to his Hindi teacher. We all know it by now, but just to refresh the memory, the boy, upset with a set of adverse remarks on his report card by this teacher had decided to avenge this and in a fit of anger, this determined 15-year-old stabbed his teacher several times letting her bleed profusely in the class-room. The teacher is no more. The incident has forced us to look back and ponder –why such a thing has happened and how to ensure such incidents do nor recur.

 

 

A similar interaction with a psychiatrist recently had brought out certain points on erratic, impulsive behavioural patterns. He said, there are ten types of standard behavioural patterns present within all human beings. What gets manifested depends on the bringing-up of the child (who has grown up to be an adult with the passage of time) and the environment he is placed in. Situations make him what he is and they provide a platform for him to act in a way he does.

 

 

This reminded me to combine the example and the explanation for such activities mentioned above to understand the conclusion of the discussion. The Professor of clinical psychology had said-- “ Make yourself the role model for the child to follow. Violence breeds violence. Shouting at each other at home will bring up a criminal, love your child and let him know through actions how much you do for him, give him time and the attention he deserves and make him responsible by penalising him for his wrongdoings. Talk to your child to understand his or her feelings.

 

Time for us to sit and think.