by Peermuhammad Ameerali

Created on: December 08, 2009

There could be as many challenges for a teacher as the number of students present in a classroom.  Out of these, to pick out and tackle the top three behavior challenges is, by itself,  a stupendous challenge which only a seasoned teacher can tackle.  A systematic and concentrated scrutiny will convince that the following are the match winners in the competition for a top place among student behavior challenges.

Student indifference in the classroom:

The challenge:  Any veteran teacher would agree that student indifference is the most formidable problem to face and solve in the classroom for the simple reason that the victim himself is happily ignorant about his own malady and would care much less for a cure.  This makes the physician's – here the teacher's – task unenviable, if not totally impossible.  Why does this happen and why, at one point or the other, has almost every student been afflicted by this malady?  An objective analysis will point to only one cause- lack of interest - in the subject, in the class, in the teacher or in all the three.  Even though the number of causes  for this problem is three, ironically in all the three the teacher is intricately involved.  This is at once both good and bad.  Good in the sense, the teacher can have a decisive role in controlling all the three without relying on external help being ever needed.  Bad because, he only has to tackle all the three in addition to attending to his routine duties which he cannot ignore.  All the same it is not altogether an impossible task.

 The solution:  A dedicated teacher should always remember the age-old Chinese proverb “Interest is the best teacher.”  The teacher need not be envious of this statement; in fact,  he would find a magic cure for this formidable challenge in this adage.  The solution lies mainly in finding out the ways and means to make his teaching interesting to attract the attention of all the students.  Once he manages to accomplish this, he would be surprised to see all things falling  into proper places, and earlier where he had a problem, now he finds a pleasant atmosphere taking over its place.  It’s a lame excuse to blame a subject for the teacher's failure.  A wise teacher once succinctly pointed out “There is no such thing as a dull subject – but there could be dull students, dull textbooks and dull teachers!”

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