Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Teaching anxiety

By Jennifer Aberhart - posted Tuesday, 11 July 2006


Unfortunately it would seem that the government’s new performance-driven pressures are not only manifesting themselves in parents but also in teachers and their classrooms. Teachers are finding that their first priority is to “teach the test” rather than provide a relaxed, happy learning environment where children are free to progress at their own rate.

With schools soon be ranked on the ability of their children to score highly on standardised tests, the emphasis in the classroom is shifting to accommodate hours of test preparation. This often means there is a narrowing, rather than a widening, of what is taught in the classroom.

Many people, who have been teachers for a long period of time, will tell you that over the years, their job satisfaction has been constantly eroded. Children’s declining behaviour and personally having to comply with more and more rigid educational directives - that they know are often not in the child’s best interests - have been the major contributors to this.

Advertisement

With such downward performance pressure being applied from the hierarchy all the way down to the child, the incidence of anxiety among teachers and their pupils is only set to increase as ranking of both individuals and schools becomes the primary objective of education.

Mental health is one of our biggest contemporary issues and it is known that stress is one of the biggest precursors to its development. The consensus of current research supports the fact that while mental illness may not manifest itself until adolescence or later, a significant proportion of people with mental illness can trace its origins back to their childhood.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “anxiety disorders often begin in late childhood” and “half of all lifetime cases begin by age 14”. The evidence supports a casual link between children’s circumstances, health and their school success and their propensity to develop mental illness later.

Research in Australia indicates that that over a quarter of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer from mental disorders and anxiety disorders are prevalent in about 14 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men in this age bracket.

The Director of the Australian Orygen Research Centre, Professor Patrick McGorry, expresses concern that there appears to have been an increasing trend towards a greater proportion of mental disorders manifesting themselves in the community since World War II. It is also frightening that the World Health Organisation has predicted by 2020, depression will have second ranking in the health burden and young people will constitute a large proportion of those afflicted.

With these facts in mind, it seems, as responsible adults, we should be doing our best to minimise rather than increase the factors that lead to this condition in our children. Ranking many children very early in their lives as under achievers and surrounding them with overly anxious parents and teachers is surely not the best way to ensure that children grow up mentally healthy.

Advertisement

As much of children’s learning is based on modelling the behaviour of the adults by whom they are surrounded, adult anxiety is sure to be transmitted in varying degrees of severity to the children in their care.

There are many stress-producing events to contend with in modern day living, many of which are outside our immediate control. However, with greater awareness of the effect of anxiety on our children’s lives, we may, at the very least, be able to reduce their exposure to our own anxieties for their well-being, and give them a more stress free environment in which to learn and grow.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

8 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Jennifer Aberhart is a primary teacher by profession with a particular interest in both children with literacy problems and the inadequacies of our educational system that significantly contributes to the failure of many of these children.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Jennifer Aberhart

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Jennifer Aberhart
Article Tools
Comment 8 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy