The Teacher's Emotional Make-Up
How can teachers help the pupils adjust to the various disturbing situations with which they are confronted --- overcoming fear, achieving emotional maturity --- if teachers themselves are not emotionally secure and well-adjusted people? The teacher who becomes disturbed if pupils do not exhibit good manners, if they become unruly or if visitors unexpectedly enter his classroom, does not have the proper emotional preparation to meet the normal behaviour likely to characterize any classroom group. Such a teacher needs to examine his teaching methods and focus more of his attention on the pupils and their growth and development.
Ethics is important in relations with boys and girls. The teacher who makes disparaging remarks about pupils in the presence of others is neither observing the ethics of the profession nor contributing to the general over-all emotional health. A teacher's emotional stability is of great importance. In addition to appraising his physical health, a teacher needs to appraise his emotional health and to develop an insight into the emotional forces such as tensions and irritations which lead to unstable behavior.
