Psychological Consultation in Educational Settings - Essay Example

DISORDER Psychology has repeatedly proved that children from troubled background with emotional and behavioral disorders invariably get connected with the recent trend of school violence, where innocent lives perish. Broken homes, uncared for childhood, loneliness, insecurity, irresponsible parent behavior, single parent's inadequate attention, parental disregard of a lonely child, sexual abuse resulting in psychological trauma - all can lead to persecution mania and result in the ugliest possible disaster called school violence. To some extent, schools and teachers too are responsible for such a turbulent eruption. Irresponsible and unresponsive behavior is not the prerogative of parents; it could come from teachers too. In a deep analysis of Colorado and Georgia shootings, Bender et al call for the identification of the 'invisible kids' before some more young lives are butchered. These random shootings are not the result of vengeance-victim syndrome. Nor they are a vendetta. Most of them are not even revenge. They are horrifyingly random, purposeless and through these victims, the killer children are targeting the entire system and societies. The cold-blooded manner in which these killings are executed would horrify a seasoned professional killer. There is no adult abetment to this crime and the violent kids themselves are responsible for thinking, dreaming, planning and executing this terrifying saga. The blood thirst that came out of these macabre incidents is the sad testimony of a society that had been complacent in their achievement. These shootings also show how easy it is for things to go fundamentally wrong, in a seemingly composed country. But had it been totally unexpected If care had been taken, there were clear proofs of mental instability and emotional upheaval. The killers had spoken previously about it and this fact was ignored. Surprisingly, they were all white male, who should not have had any grouse against society, as they were not targeted in any way. They were intelligent and clever youngsters and not dull heads. They seemed focused in what they were doing. They were neither the school bullies, nor the stereotyped bad boys and had no record of being violent, though in one case, there was a terrifying report of mutilating animals and thus, a pattern was creating. They were not overtly aggressive in their previous behavior. Teachers did not find them more violent than the rest. They could not detect that things were going frighteningly wrong. Parents could not detect any unprecedented behavior. So, who were these almost identical invisible kids, who showed such callous disregard for human life They are invisible because they cannot be fitted into any of the known categories. There had been no demonstration of the known behavioral disorder patterns. Another appalling point that comes to light is their accessibility to dangerous weapons and the irresponsibility of the person who owned them, and usually it is one of the parents. Another significant factor is the deteriorating respect for life. Involvement of a fringe group dealing with drugs too cannot be ruled out, even though there had been no evidence that the violent youngster was egged into it. The high-risk behavior has to be identified before it erupts into violence and indescribable misery. It is ghastly to think that these ordinary and rather insignificant kids could hold a volcano of emotions in their mind that could explode in dire consequences. Teachers and parents had not been safe either and there is an atmosphere of fear developing. ""These three features of violence in the 1990s - increased lethality, more random violence, and fewer safe places - largely account for the high levels of fear experienced by both children and adults (Elliott, 1994a, taken here from Elliott, 1998, p.5). This all-male club is baffling too. Emotional turbulence does not unsettle the females of the species quite in the same way. It is also possible that it could be a masculinity show. "Masculinity as a broad category can only exist in a contrasting relationship to the category of feminity. Masculinity is what feminity is not," says Mills (2001, p.20). These youngsters never fit into the teachers' perception of masculinity-proving troublemakers. Each child brings his own personality and individuality into the school environment. It could be a troubled personality, or a secure one. Emotionally disturbed child is always lonely, nursing his grievances, fiercely clinging to his wounds and not letting them go, and not sharing it with others. Purpose and objective of this kind of violence is never easy to decipher. It could be self-destruction, an imaginational revenge, breaking shackles out of victimization, desire for gory deeds or even could be the mere and basic attention snatching. "Our understanding of the interplay of personal attributes and dispositions and contextual conditions that enhance or diminish the chances that particular youth will become involved in serous forms of violent behavior during their adolescent years improved greatly over the past decade," Elliott at al (1998, p.24). Elliott also points out that the rough and tumble, 'good nature' play could lead to a violent streak, especially if the child was hurt during playing. School violence has become a social concern and a sense of fear is stalking these societies. Violent events and provocative films with passionate loud messages can erupt this tendency among the children. There are psychological evidences that emotional disturbance, effectively suppressed and endured single-handedly can explode one day into murderous behavior. Interviews and talks to the psychologists have brought out many alarming trends. Even very young children, have a dark side in their behavior. Some of the psychologists have this opinion: children always had this dark side, but it was turned into games and playing in the open along with other children released the worse of it. Now unfortunately in the cities children have a more protected life and miss out these outlets by living in isolation in front of their TVs. The violent games on TV cannot be judged absolutely harmless either. There is an urgent need of diagnosing the psychological and emotional problems as subtly as possible. Regarding the confusion about a diagnosis, Alpert (1982, p. 38), has given her candid opinion in the matter. "One can observe, interview, administer formal as well as informal questionnaires, or rely on unobtrusive measures such as content analysis of announcements over public address systems or letters to school staff and parents." Violent video games, television violence, cinema violence, street fights, glorification of violence in the media, all could be responsible for the emotional imbalance of an already disturbed child. Homelessness, homosexuality, violation of human rights, immigration and destabilization, non-adjustment to parental estrangement, public humiliation, baseless rumor mongering, discrimination, bullying, ragging or other forms of hostility could all create emotional problems. In a society, where most of the marriages end in divorce and separation, custody of the children becomes a major issue and the child might not get adjusted to the separation or to the custody. Again, problems of step-fathers/mothers and stepsiblings could be another upheaval. Children abuse by stepparents is not unheard of either. A helpless child, physically weak, being subjected to unending and fearful harassment, physical and mental agony, or sorely missing one of the parents or siblings can develop a negative attitude in life and suppressed emotions can lead into murderous tendencies. Children, psychologically, try to return what they receive. Lack of peer support and teachers' understanding too would escalate matters. It is important that children are provided with as much security as possible at home, at school and in this direction psychological help and frequent reviewing would be valuable. One could fathom the depth of agony the youngster must have gone through, before killing his teachers or friends, even though he looked hardened in the end of it all. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Alpert, Judith L. and Associates (1982), Psychological Consultation in Educational Settings, Jossey-Bass Publishers, London. 2. Bender, William N., Shubert, Terresa H. and McLaughlin, Phillip J. (2001), "Invisible Kids: Preventing School Violence by Identifying Kids in Trouble", Intervention in School and Clinic, 37, no. 2, 105-11 N 2001. 3. Davies, Lynn (2004), Education and Conflict, RoutledgeFalmer, London. 4. Elliott, Delbert S., Hamburg, Beatrix A. and Williams, Kirk R. (1998), Violence in American Schools, A New Perspective, Cambridge University Press. 5. Furlong, Michael and Morrison, Gale (2000), "The Invisible Kids, Preventing School Violence," Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Austin: Summer 2000, Vol. 8. Iss, 2; pg. 71. 12 pgs. 6. Mills, Martin (2001), Challenging Violence in Schools, Open University Press, Buckingham. 7. Smith, Peter K. (2003), ed., Violence in Schools, RoutledgeFalmer, London. Read More