COUNSEL YOUR EDUCATORS

COUNSEL YOUR EDUCATORS

The significance of counseling is not to be taken lightly: Reem Bakheet, social and education activist

The role of a teacher is often misunderstood. It is not solely to provide an insight into textbooks provided by schools – it is about shaping children’s personalities, teaching them mannerisms and being a role model.

If the teacher is not content in life and is dealing with issues at home, he or she is not fit to teach. Before a teacher enters a classroom, school managements need to ensure he or she is stable as a person who can take the responsibility of teaching and grooming children.

When a teacher is unhappy inside or depressed or going through issues at home, he or she is bringing those issues into the classroom. Whether you call it sadness, madness or anger, they are bringing a negative energy into the room. And it is unacceptable.

We need to provide counseling sessions for our teachers. Before a person is allowed to teach children, we need to ensure they are capable; we need to make sure they are balanced personalities.

A problem that we face however in our society is resistance to the idea of counseling. Most of us aren’t open to it whether it’s teachers, parents or children. If you seek to counsel, you are seen as someone in dire need and someone who is possibly crazy. It is seen in negative light and we need to change this perception.

If a child says he is facing trouble and needs to see a counselor or psychologist, parents feel it reflects poorly on them – they feel they are not good parents and this is why the child is not at par with what is claimed ‘normal’ in society. This is a wrong approach.

I remember training a 12-year-old boy once and he seemed to be very angry with his father – every time he would come to pick him up or his name came up, the little boy would be full of rage. I instantly knew there was some underlying tension between him and his father.

I spoke to the father and told him he needs to take his son to a counselor and go with him – you both have issues and you need to resolve them or matters will get worse. The father refused and was livid. “How dare you suggest that in front of my child. I don’t need counseling and neither does he,” was his response.

I was flabbergasted. I have come to realize that the ego is much bigger than the reality. We don’t want to accept the truth. If you keep throwing issues under the rug and ignoring them, they will only pile up and before you know it, it’ll be too late to fix them.

Counseling needs to be seen in positive light and a way of moving forward. We should include school counselors in our administration so if a child, parent or teacher needs to stabilize or just talk about their issues, they have an accessible safe spot.