The dilemma of primary school teachers: How to deal with students’ emotional and behavioral problems?

◎ Lin Jinjia

The biggest teaching dilemma for grassroots teachers is that when students have emotional and behavioral problems, they don’t know how to deal with them; the schematic diagram and the characters in the picture have nothing to do with this article. (File photo)

Recently, from the news incident about the Kaohsiung teacher to the Korean film and television drama "Iron Fist Education", various parties have raised concerns about the "protection of students' rights to education" and the "erosion of teachers' right to teach." Among them, the biggest dilemma for grassroots teachers is that when students have emotional and behavioral problems, they don’t know how to deal with them more appropriately? In particular, they encountered "unusual" parents, who were "too good and bad", "easy to blame" and "lack of support", which made the teachers sigh, "It's better to go back."

Returning to the essence of education, the "right to be educated" and the "right to teach" should complement each other and are consistent with the purpose and expectations of parents in sending their children to school. The reason why conflicts between students/parents and teachers often develop is because students' emotional behavior is "unusual", and under the current system, teachers cannot handle it smoothly, so they expect parents to join in to help, but they encounter "unusual" parents. The point is, "extraordinary" students often have "extraordinary" parents. That is to say, students will have emotional and behavioral problems. In addition to some related to brain function, many times it is related to whether the family function is sound. So, who should be responsible for this: students, who did not intentionally break the rules; parents, who are powerless; teachers, if the government does not provide sufficient back-up, they will undoubtedly be in trouble.

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The emergence of students' emotional and behavioral problems may be due to physical factors, such as problems with the brain's emotional regulation and impulse control; it may be due to insufficient recognition of stress and insufficient ability to cope with and regulate; or it may be due to insufficient family and peripheral support systems. How can we expect teachers to have a way to deal with it. In particular, teachers have to face the teaching of many other students.

Based on the fact that "UNESCO funding" has a constitutional minimum guarantee and is increasing year by year, the author has three suggestions:

1. Provide teachers at all levels with systematic mental health in-service education courses. Teachers take classes and are paid hourly as students.

2. In addition to the existing three-level counseling system, establish a cooperation mechanism between the school and the mental health care system. Specialist doctors will go to the school to conduct "biological, psychological, and social" assessments on "abnormal" students as early as possible. This is definitely not about medicalizing student problems, but rather through assessment and triage and providing relevant intervention as early as possible to avoid more serious situations in the future.

3. Schools should establish a (mental health) social worker staff to be responsible for social work with parents, provide family therapy when necessary, and assist teachers in facing parents' difficulties.

The school board meeting system has put great pressure on teachers. The Democratic Progressive Party legislators held a press conference on "Review of the School Board System and Campus Governance Reform" and proposed "teachers' right to go offline"; from left are Wu Siyao, Wu Lihua, Guo Yuqing, Lin Yijin and Chen Peiyu. (Provided by the office of DPP Legislator Guo Yuqing)

(The author is a psychiatrist)