PARENTS today give utmost importance to early childhood education as it plays a significant role in a child’s cognitive, moral and social development.
Nowadays, most preschool teachers are well-trained and qualified in their field. Some even possess a master’s degree in early childhood education.
With the advancement of more academically trained preschool teachers, variations in teaching methodologies incorporating fun learning approaches are being used. Many of the established as well as newly-opened preschools are adopting these teaching methods to make learning enjoyable and sought after.
Despite putting together all the effective teaching mechanisms, my recent observations in a number of preschools left me in shock. I visited these preschools to place my 4-year-old in a suitable kindergarten and had the opportunity to observe the attitude of these teachers towards the children in the classroom.
I noticed that some resorted to yelling as a means to discipline the children. Yelling was used as a tool to instil fear in these children so they don’t misbehave in class. The shouting was extremely loud — one could hear them even from a distance of 300 metres from the classroom. The children, aged between 3 and 6 years, were dumbfounded each time the teacher yelled at any sign of disobedience.
I once witnessed a preschool teacher yelling at the children for walking slowly in a group for their toilet break. One child fell on the ground because she got so startled by the shouting.
Some of the preschool teachers used a cane to hit the table loudly to grab the attention of the little ones. I believe they should instead ring a tiny bell or clap if they want immediate attention from the children. The loud smack from the cane frightens the little ones and creates a fear of getting caned.
The teachers simply take out their stress on these innocent kids just because they are children. They are weaker and will not voice out objections. These children seem to be the preschool teachers’ punching bags.
I feel these children have lost their “childlike” traits due to constant fear of the teachers.
As someone trained in educational psychology, I find these attitudes — which cause fear — will leave an emotional scar on the children over time. To a certain extent, these acts can be classified as emotional abuse.
Some of these children could become submissive and grow up to be adults with low self-esteem in the future due to this kind of negative exposure in childhood. We can observe that many adults in our country today are generally afraid to talk in public.
We say they are “shy” but if we look at the root cause, it usually arises from their negative childhood experiences. I referred these cases to a dean of education of a local university.
The dean, who has a doctorate in early childhood education, reiterated that the approaches applied by these teachers are harmful to the children’s emotional and social development, and may even affect the future state of their mental health.
Preschool teachers who yell at children should stop doing so and be more professional.
VIGNESWARAN KANNAN
Sitiawan, Perak