Boosting up students’ confidence
Karim Muhammad Khan
Several empirical studies find out that students in most of the public and private sector schools are lacking confidence as they feel shy in expressing themselves; participate less in activities and ask very few questions in the class. Visitors also observe similar weaknesses in students as majority of them prefer to be reticent and respond very little questions posed by them. Furthermore, children hesitate to share their feelings with parents, teachers, elders and even friends openly. Consequently, lacking of confidence in students are creating hurdles in reaching out to their fullest potentials and get themselves prepared for career choice in future.
There are multiple causes behind such low self-confidence i.e. autocratic approaches of parents, teachers and elders in the upbringing of children at home and school. For instance, at early age parents are responsible to look after their children but it has been observed that children are sternly prohibited to go against certain family norms such as showing respect and allegiance towards family members, elders and guests. They are usually kept away from guests and are discouraged when someone intermingled in sharing food with them. At times, juvenile delinquencies like damaging things at home, quarrelling each other and being rude to parents are reprimanded or even give them corporal punishment which hurt their self-esteem and personality.
In addition, it has also been noted that domestic quarrels, violence and drug addictions can also have negative impact on children’s personality, morality and proper grooming. Therefore, parents should create a peaceful and loving atmosphere at home through polite communications, practicing courtesy, showing respect and tolerance and live with harmony. They should also avoid some bad habits like using abusive languages, intimidating words with aggressive tunes and using any kind of drugs in front of their children as habits are caught not taught. Issues such as quarrels and getting things damaged unconsciously can be addressed carefully and cautiously without hurting their self-esteem and self-image. Arranging awareness sessions for parents on effective parenting skills are essential in looking after children properly and building their self-esteem.
Next, apart from home environment, school milieu is also critical where children’s personality and morality are shaped and reshaped by curriculum and teachers. However, there is lack of understanding about the crux of schooling through which attaining high grades and maintaining discipline becomes the pivot of the curriculum while children’s confidence and self-esteem are ignored. Most of the schools are working on this mission to compete one another in getting maximum high grades without taking their self-esteem and confidence level into account and it has been noted that students have even committed suicide in the past when they failed or could not secure their desirable grades.
Indeed, without any doubt, grades and disciplines are critical in children’s progress but at the same time their self-esteem and confidence are also important for their holistic development. Therefore, schools should have visionary and pedagogical leadership along with professionally trained and dedicated teachers as they can better understand classroom dynamics; learning theories; individual differences and different learning styles and get acquainted with their socio-economic background of children and treat them accordingly.
