School phobia. Is there way out?

Nastya Romanova, school 77

School phobia. Is there way out?

Good morning. My name is Nastya. And today I am going to reflect on the question of school phobia and its possible ways out.

The problem of school phobia is highly discussed in our modern society and is an important issue throughout all studying.  After all, not every student is lucky enough to study without problems and not every student is able to solve these problems quickly and harmless for his virgin psyche. Are you really sure that all first graders are equally willing to go to school? Is it really happiness for each of them?

Indeed, I am sure that among the well-dressed and smiling children on the first of September, there are always those who wholeheartedly want to go back home, to be closer to parents, to be closer to familiar surroundings. Similarly, in secondary school there are students who disgust school being afraid of experiencing the same negative feelings they were unlucky to experience once or twice or even several number of times.  While the first category is psychologically unable to accept the idea of parting home, the second finds it rather painful to undergo sufferings again and again. The thing that these children have in common is phobia. So, the question is how to get rid of this illness and whether it is possible to avoid its development or not.

To begin with, let us try to define what school phobia is and its possible reasons. So this is an illness, called didaskaleinophobia. Often it is expressed by unwillingness to go to school and in regular absences. Despite the accusations and threats from parents and teachers, children still continue inventing lame excuses and making hysterics. The child may not attend school from a few months to a year, justifying this by the fact that he is afraid to go to school or afraid of teachers or classmates. This behavior can be accompanied by mental disorders and fits of rage.

Usually, children of preschool age begin to suffer from this disease. The child does not want to go to school or kindergarten because he feels that he is not ready to spend time without the loved ones. This happens because of excessive care of parents, who make their children dependable and always solve problems for them. In connection with this a child develops a phobia and he refuses to leave home. Most parents don’t even know about the existence of such phobia and make things even worse when they insist on obedience.

Certainly, there are ways out but it is not easy to find them.  I will try to explain my view by giving some pieces of advice.

Firstly, we should work on motivation. It is the first step to understanding, that school can be interesting and important for future life. Schools teaches to cooperate, to cope with difficulties, gives knowledge and friends. If he hasn’t got an understanding that his future depends on his present, he won’t have results.

Secondly, it is also important to develop abilities since childhood, because with every new step a child gets new skills. And we must develop them. A child should have positive emotions when he does something new. All his fears will go away.

Thirdly, we should teach a child to be independent of adults, to be able to cope with problems without parents help, but at the same time be part of a group of children. A child should not be isolated. Don’t leave him alone.

What is more, we should teach a child to make decisions and to be responsible for actions and words. We should teach him to have an opinion and to express it but at the same time be tolerant.

These are the things, which can be done to avoid the development of phobia. However, if it happens to be late don’t hesitate to go to a psychologist. If there are some indications of phobia - you must take measures. And it’s better to ask for advice of a professional. There are a lot of programs that help children to feel better. In some serious cases children are taken to special houses where step by step they learn to be independent of parents and develop social skills and arouse interests. For elder students there are programs that help to overcome shyness, to feel confident to cope with difficulties and to react to failures.

I also believe parents should entertain children with some useful and interesting affairs. It helps to forget about problems and digresses from school.

But remember you should never shout or show anger when you speak about school because the mind of a child is really damaged and everything can get worse. As the research shows most phobic children consider suicide as a way out. So the task is to eliminate the chances of such thoughts.

To conclude, I want to say that all children are different, which means the problems they encounter are different too. Be attentive to the needs and worries of a child no matter how old he is. Life is a difficult thing but together we can do impossible things.