Handling a Delinquent in School

Are you facing trouble in handling the ill-disciplined, difficult, and insolent behaviour of students? Do you want to know what to do when facing classroom management issues? I will help you in this matter by sharing few case studies and intervention strategies. You can deal with difficult students who are impertinent and rude in class.

When a new session starts, it is common at every level of class that teachers face few disobedient students even at the university level. I faced hundreds of students who were disobedient and affronted. Whether you are a teacher at school or at home you may face such problems and want relief from this taxing situation. At the conclusion of this article are reflected intervention strategies that I personally experienced and shared by fellow teachers who already handled such kinds of delinquent students. Detention doesn’t work. Neither does criticism. Or yelling. In fact, they may actually aggravate and encourage a child’s defiance. What does work? Teachers can’t actually control their students’ behaviour. That’s because the only behaviour a person can control is his or her own. And when teachers try to directly restrict what students say or do, they’re usually left feeling frustrated and helpless. Teaching can be a demanding profession. There are times when students can seem uninterested in learning and disruptive to the classroom environment. There are plenty of studies and educational strategies for improving student behaviour. But personal experience may be the best way to show how to turn a difficult student into a dedicated pupil.

Before joining the University, I had an opportunity to work as a teacher in few schools of the valley and encounter heterogeneous set of students. I shall share one experience where I was able to help change a potential delinquent with major behavioural issues into a learning success story. Khalid was enrolled in class 9^th where I taught science to the students. He had impulse-control and anger-management issues. He had been suspended many times in previous years. When he entered my class in his senior year, I assumed the worst. Khalid sat in the back row. Unfortunately, every time I called on Khalid, he would respond with a casual answer. If he got an answer wrong, he would become angry. I was still trying to connect with Khalid but failed. I usually get students involved in class discussions or at least motivate them to sit quietly and attentively. By contrast, Khalid was just loud and detestable. Khalid had been in so much trouble through the years that being a problem student had become his modus operandi. He expected his teachers to know about his referrals, where he was sent to the office, and suspensions, where he was given mandatory days to stay out of school. He would push every teacher to see what it would take to get a referral. I tried to endure him. I had rarely found referrals to be effective because students would return from the office behaving worse than before.

One day, Khalid was talking while I was teaching. In the middle of the lesson, I said in the same tone, “Khalid why don’t you join our discussion instead of having one of your own.” With that, he got up from his chair, pushed it over and yelled something. I can’t remember what he said other than that it included several profanity words. I sent Khalid to the office with a discipline referral, and he received a week-long out-of-school suspension. To this point, this was one of my worst teaching experiences. However, the suspension week would soon come to an end, and I dreaded his return. Back home I realized that I targeted Khalid not his problem behaviour. Next day I visited the residence of Khalid, he was taken by a surprise. There he treated me best, we took a walk in the nearby park there I had a long discussion with him. He had the feeling of being alienated from the system, I assured henceforth he will be an integral part of the system.

On the day of Khalid’s return, I stood at the door awaiting him for authentic welcome. As promised, I told him that I wanted to start over with him and build a relationship based on mutual respect and unpunctuated trust. I also told him that if he ever felt like he was going to lose his temper in the class, he had my permission to step outside the classroom for a moment to recollect himself. From that point on, Khalid was a transformed student. He actively participated in classroom discourses.

 He was a smart student, something I could finally discover in him. He even stopped a fight between two of his colleagues one day. He never abused his break time privilege. Giving Khalid the power to leave the classroom showed him that he had the ability to choose how he would behave. At the end of the year, Khalid wrote me a thank you note about how well the year had gone for him. I still have that note today and find it touching to reread when I become stressed about teaching.

This experience changed me as a teacher. I came to understand that students are people who have feelings and who don’t want to feel cornered. They want to learn, but they also want to feel as if they have some control over themselves. I never made assumptions again about students before they came into my class. Every student is different; no two students react in the same way. It is our task as teachers to find not only what motivates each student to learn but also what causes them to misbehave. If we can meet them at that point and take away their reason to misbehave, we can go a long way toward achieving more effective classroom management and a better learning environment. The good teacher has to read the silent gestures of his students.

People are ever more distant and cold with each other; but the example of good teacher gives us hope and lesson “In All Things be Men”. We should treat others with empathy and kindness. We should not judge them quickly but learn to respect and validate their emotions. In our own small way, we can make a big ever-lasting difference. It is easy to point a finger but we should not be pre-judgmental without knowing the background. There was a delinquent boy who messaged his classmate with some very rude and insulting words. When her mother came to know on the WhatsApp group of parents she felt sorry and apologized on behalf of her son. The women counselled his son to apologize to his classmate and accompanied him to his residence. The boy asked his colleague for forgiveness for his unruly behaviour. She counselled his son that due to bullying, using inappropriate language against classmates many of them take it to heart and display withdrawal and escapism tendencies; they consider themselves of little or no value. The boy realized his mistake and assured his mother to amend his delinquent behaviour.

One facet of addressing misbehaviour proactively is the focus on promoting healthy social and emotional development. This emphasis meshes well with a school’s goals related to enhancing students’ personal and social wellbeing. And, it is essential to creating an atmosphere of “caring,” “cooperative learning,” and a “sense of community”. In a power struggle, nobody wins. Even if a teacher feels like they have won by supressing the delinquent by using coercive methods, they haven’t, because the chance of reoccurrence is great. Avoiding power struggles comes down to exhibiting patience. When teachers show patience, they are modelling good behaviour. When teachers are about to reprimand or punish a child, teachers can bring them up first by saying something like, “Lately you’ve done so well. I’ve been so impressed with your behaviour. Why, today, did you need to be involved with a hands-on?” This is a way for teachers to deal with the issue head-on. Then, teachers can end on a note like, “I know it won’t happen again because you’ve been so good up until this moment. I have great faith in you.”

Some of the intervention strategies in handling delinquents are (a) Dig out the problem (b) Your positive behaviour makes delinquent students obedient and respectful (c) Stay calm every time with delinquents (d) Talk to them privately (e) Chalk out an intervention in consultation with their parents (f) Help them in choosing right friends (g) Repose unpunctuated trust in them (h) Keep them engaged in productive activities (i) Give them patient empathetic listening (j) Provide leadership roles to them like monitoring or representing the class (k) Do not ignore their queries and complaints (l) Appreciate and acknowledge when they are improving (m) Be patient results will not come immediately (n) Do not criticize or unveil them in the public (0) Teach emotional regulations (p) Provide students with options

Dr Showkat Rashid Wani, Senior Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, University of Kashmir