Whenever, we try to visualize a fearful student, usually a picture pops out in our brain of a nail-biting, bespectacled, book worm kind of a kid.
We usually perceive an anxious student as one who is studious and is mostly afraid of not getting satisfying result that can match up with the expectation of his/her parents and teachers.
But…. Somehow it’s a fault in our notion. As a school teacher, I have seen so many varieties of students and I also learned THIS ONE THING for sure that fear is not a quality of only those who work hard.
Instead fear can be there in any kind of a child whether he is studious or wilful, smart or stupid, sincere or stubborn, scholar or slow learner, whatsoever.
Some definitely gain mastery over hiding their fear behind casualness of their acts, stubbornness and argumentative behaviour, but deep down we need to know that they are terrified.
In this post, I will first discuss the “why” fear occurs and will then move to “how” it can be solved.
Always remember you will be determined to work on how only if you will understand why of a situation.
Reasons of student fears
- Parental pressure
- Lack of preparation
- Overthinking
- Lack of basic knowledge
Parental pressure:
The performance anxiety due to undue pressure posed by parental expectations is one of the major reasons of student fear. You can identify this stage by analysing why are you putting extra sincere efforts in your studies?… to gain knowledge and grow yourself or just to make someone happy!!!
Lack of preparation:
It is well known that students tend to waste their time and get their tasks piled up due to many reasons. It could be due to lack of motivation, laziness, online gaming addiction or believe me or not…. due to unhealthy food habits (YES!!! THAT’S PROVEN).
Find your own reason.
Overthinking:
Well now comes this class of students who prepare with utmost care for everything and always have a tape-record playing at the back of their mind that they will screw it up at the end. This is the major reason why many parents are seen complaining at PTAs that their child prepared very well during exams then how could he/she score less. The answer is that the student is too afraid to fail and in order to avoid that he/she is always overthinking about the moments and situations that may never even come.
Lack of basic knowledge:
Whenever a student is promoted to next class, it is expected to have a minimal level of learning (MLL) as per the new class. Usually, it is seen that a teacher always plans to review in a class what a child has already learnt but due to time restraints much emphasis is not laid on going back to basics. Hence, students who somehow get promoted without MLL suffer progressively in their future as the curriculum expands.
YOU HAVE GOT VARIOUS QUICK FIXES FOR IT:
- Be expressive
- Plan your day
- Assess your actions
- It is OK to waste time sometimes:
- Stop fretting
- Start from zero
Be expressive:
Students need to realise their potentials and their interest areas first. Then they should be shared with their parents in a very respectful, expressive manner without being hurtful. And if the student is not yet grown enough to find his/her own interests then the responsibility lies on parents’ shoulders to select what is best for their wards not what “YOU” want
Plan your day:
Leaving your work pending for too long will not make it disappear rather it will become huge only. So why not plan the time schedule to do everything without leaving anything. It brings order and discipline in life. Plus, you get to have the freedom to decide the course of your actions. Who doesn’t like being free… free of pending tasks, free of mental pressure, free of guilt…
Assess your actions:
Before making a choice between work and entertainment, try to ask these questions to yourself
Does your task series allow you to do this? Will it generate any guilt later? Will it help me? Will I be able to control myself from not wasting too much time?
It is OK to waste time sometimes:
Now that must be confusing for you, right???
Yes, I know what I am saying. No one expects you to become robotic. You are just expected to learn how you can weigh your actions BEFORE they are done instead of feeling GUILTY LATER. Sometimes, it is fine if you take a complete break from your studies for a day or two (also, it depends if exams are near… Haha)
Stop fretting
This is to those students who study a lot and think a lot too. What you need to practice is start living in present, plan well from your side and leave those future things which you keep WORRYING about to remain spontaneous. You cannot control what future holds. For example, you cannot know which question may come in your exam so stop thinking of it and just study well. This is what you could do in that time, that’s what is in your control.
Start from zero:
If you did not understand the importance of study in the past years and lack the important basic concepts, so what… start from where you need.
It is same as if we are driving and missed a left turn while being in an interesting conversation with our friend sitting on passenger seat. What do we do in such situation? Do we start crying that we are lost for ever and we will never be able to reach home? Do we call emergency services to rescue us? Do we start fighting and blaming each other?
No, we simply take the next U-turn, come back to original place of mistake and take the correct turn to home.. happy ending!!!
So it is OK if you have to start from zero. It is no big deal if you once understand the importance of basics and its impacts on your future growth.
So put your wizard hat on and start working on something that others say is only possible by magic…
Start from ground zero if that is your level you need to start from. Just give away all the embarrassment of what your peers would think.
Trust me.. no one can think low for you unless you don’t think low of yourself. So trust your own actions, analyse them and calculate what good they may bring in your life. I am sure this will reassure you and eliminate all your fears about STARTING FROM ZERO.
Just remember one thing, in order to make a successful building, we don’t just need strong walls but a strong base. So this base is the one that needs strengthening the most.
All the best..