Worlds of Fear: School Cultures

Dealing with Fear in Schools

Establishing Right
Relationship
 The Principal Was….
The principal was ticked off
So he yelled at the vice-principal
The vice-principal was outraged
That’s why he called the co-
ordinator stupid.
That made the coordinator furious
He slapped the language teacher
So the language teacher
complained
To the education inspector
The education inspector started
foaming at the mouth
And he threatened to shut down
the school.
That made the principal livid
So he yelled at the vice-
principal...
Nikhil Khurana (11 yrs, class 7)
Hierarchy of relationships

Education
Inspector

Principal

Vice
Principal

Coordinator Coordinator

Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher

 Cycle of Emotional Reactions
Ticked off

Yelled at
Threatened Principal

Yelled at

Education
Vice Principal
Inspector

Complained Called
stupid
Slapped
Coordinato
Teacher
r
 Fear at Home and in Schools
When we are young, fear is instilled into most of us both at home
and at school. Neither parents nor teachers [usually] have the
patience, the time or the wisdom to dispel the instinctive fears of
childhood, which, as we grow up, dominate our attitudes and
judgment and create a great many problems.

The right kind of education must take into consideration this

question of fear, because fear warps our whole outlook on life. To
be without fear is the beginning of wisdom, and only the right kind
of education can bring about the freedom from fear in which alone
there is deep and creative intelligence.

J. Krishnamurti, 1953
 Fear in Schools and at Home

Do Flowers Fly?

A short animation film by Prosenjit Ganguly, a young

design student

Based on his own experience of schooling

 Experience of Relationships in
Schools
Most children are curious, they want to know; but their eager
inquiry is dulled by our pontifical assertions, our superior
impatience and our casual brushing aside of their curiosity. We do
not encourage their inquiry, for we are rather apprehensive of
what may be asked of us; we do not foster their discontent, for we
ourselves have ceased to question.

If the teacher demands respect from his pupils and has very little
for them, it will obviously cause indifference and disrespect on
their part. Without respect for human life, knowledge only leads to
destruction and misery. The cultivation of respect for others is an
essential part of right education, but if the educator himself has
not this quality, he cannot help his students to an integrated life.
 Factors that shape School Cultures
• Teachers having to teach large classes with many students

• Emphasis on rote teaching-learning and tests and exam

results

• Institutionalized competition: marks, ranks, prizes

• Hierarchies in relationships among adults

• Hierarchies among students (prefects, monitors, class

captains, row monitors)

• ‘Discipline’ and ‘motivation’ through punishments and

rewards
 What Individual Teachers can do?
• Develop their own clarity of purpose and hold wider goals in
teaching students
• Nurture their own humanity, and a concern for reaching out to
their students as persons
• Foster supportive and cooperative relationships among
students in their classes
• Remain alert to inhibiting/discouraging influences from
colleagues or administrators, without feeling or getting isolated
• Try generating a positive influence on other colleagues as well
comparison

Students would then experience pockets of ‘better relationships’

in school, where fear is not the primary driver of learning.
 What Administrators can do?
• Put in place systems that ensure that every student feels
recognized and known by the adults
• Promote higher academic goals than merely exam-driven learning
• Provide as many opportunities as feasible for all students to
participate in co-curricular activities
• Build-in expectations from coordinators and teachers of
responding to student needs (emotional and academic) as a
primary part of their role
• Encourage an ethos of cooperative working and sharing among
teachers at different levels
• Provide fair-minded leadership, without becoming authoritarian
• Be clear and alert in responding to negative pressures from
parents and other stake-holders
 Situation 1

A senior school teacher, whose students’

exam results were not so good this year, is
called in by the principal.

Scenario A: “This year, the math results were bad.

Why were the results so poor? The parents are
very unhappy. Next year, you must see to it that
your students get very good marks! Our school has
a very good name. We must keep up our
standards. I think you will have to work harder!”
 Situation 1

Scenario B: “This year, the math results of quite a

few students were not so good. What do you think
might have happened? You had mentioned to me
earlier that some of these students were struggling
with some topics right up to the practice exams. Was
their performance due to their lack of preparedness,
or was it something to do with the exam paper itself?
And looking at the current batch of students, how do
you think they stand? Are there some new strategies
that are needed to support them? Just think over this
and lets talk about it some time.”
 Situation 2

The students in a particular middle school

teacher’s (X’s) classes tend to be a bit loud and
excited. Other classes around are getting
somewhat disturbed. Teachers talk about this in
the staff room.

Scenario A: A group of teachers ‘complain’ to each

other that X seems to have no control over his class,
and it is a real problem for everybody. One of them
suggests that : “He lets them behave any way they like, I
think he just wants to be popular with students.”
 Situation 2

Scenario B: Teacher Y brings up with X the issue of

noise from his classroom:
“Hey what kinds of activities are you doing in your
classes? The students seem to be enjoying these… but
you know the students from my class next door can
also hear them speaking, and they want to go out and
see what’s happening. I don’t know whether you had
realized this…. Anyway, do tell me what you are
actually doing! Maybe we can work out a solution for
the sounds that spill out and reach other classes.”
 The Importance of not being
Frightened

Discussion with students on fear

Krishnamurti speaking with students at Rishi Valley

School in 1978
 Sustaining Right Relationships

1. Hold the intention of understanding each other – one’s

colleagues and students (not quickly labelling or holding fixed
images and opinions)
2. Being self-aware of one’s thinking and emotional responses vis
a vis others (and any compulsive, unthinking reactions)
3. Value working in cooperation, rather than in competition, or in
an authoritarian manner (not comparing, pressurizing, pitting
one against another, or showing favouritism)
4. Conversation, discussion and dialogue for dealing with issues
that arise (rather than one-way directives, or just going by rules)
5. Interest in a deeper understanding of human problems such
as fear, aggression, loneliness, envy, as part of one’s self-
education (…release one’s creative energies)
6. Nurturing affection and concern for others