Author: Claus & Ingrid Dreyer
Aside from having control over one’s emotions, self-control is the ability to think before taking action. Absence or lack of self-control will lead to a person act on impulse, which can lead to doing things that can be regretted later on. Children need to be taught the essential skill of self-control at an early age, in order for them to cope better with life’s challenges, as they grow older.
Teaching self-discipline to students starts by example. Teachers must practice this skill in order to relay this effectively to her class. He should always demonstrate the healthy way to react to stress, instead of getting angry and emotional.
One of the effective tools in teaching self-control to students is letting them engage in self-dialogue. He should learn to assess a situation, and preconceive the consequences if he acts out of line. For instance, if he is tempted to get into a fight with a fellow student, he should consider the following scenarios: If I do hit him, he will hit back and we will get into a big fight. If we are caught, I will be sent to the principal’s office, and he might suspend me or expel from school. If that happens, my mom and dad will get mad at men, and worse, will be disappointed in me. So maybe I should not do this at all.
When on the brink of losing self-control, students can take deep breaths, talk to someone and distract him with other things, in order to alleviate the negative emotions burning inside him.
The trouble with children who lack self-control is that they become rebellious, and will be unable to see or understand what the other children are feeling or thinking about. They will often resort to anger to let out their steam, and when faced with a difficult situation, they will rather provoke someone negatively instead of looking for calmer and peaceful ways to distract him from the problem. In addition, they assume that being aggressive will make them appear tough and brave to other feelings, and that they might be admired for his behavior.
It is the job of teachers to get this under control and teach a student how to learn self-control. Here are some tips on how to do just that. First is to let the children come in front of the class, one by one, and have them demonstrate an emotion. The other kids can identify that feeling. Then talk about the reasons why they might have these kinds of feelings. The benefit of which is that you are letting the students name positive ways to cope with these negative feelings. Some of these ways are talking to a parent, reading a book, chatting with a friend, exercising and writing down their feelings in a diary.
