Looking beyond the school gates: Understanding students’ violent behaviour

 

THE recent rise in crime involving school students has sparked an uproar nationwide, from theft, bullying, drug abuse, to rape and murder. Amid the chaos, one theme remained constant: the public blaming of schools for allowing such violent crimes to happen under their watch.

Teachers are accused of failing to educate, administrators are seen as negligent, and the education system is criticised as ineffective.

Despite these allegations, one question remains: Are schools the sole party responsible for the violent acts committed by students?. To answer this conundrum, the society must face a cold, hard truth.

The foundation for a child’s character, values, and discipline begins at home, with parents as their first and primary educators. A crack in this foundation can lead to the collapse of a child’s moral defences and jeopardise their future.

More often than not, people forget that teachers play the role of educators for a fraction of the day for children in school. The bulk of their time is spent at home with their families, where parents shoulder the responsibility of shaping their children.

Today, most parents are preoccupied with earning material wealth with the aim of providing the best life for their family, which in turn leads to a stressful life and less quality time invested in educating and developing their children.

When parents prioritise careers, possessions, and comfort, children turn to their electronic devices and the internet for information and learning. Most of the time, they are left unchecked to consume violent, obscene, and deviant content.

(Image: R.AGE)

Eventually, these children begin to display moral corruption and extreme behaviours, and the school is made the scapegoat.

In truth, it is the parents who allowed them to drift by providing them access to gadgets without supervision. There is little that teachers can do once the children have been exposed to unregulated content and allowed to form their own worldview, particularly on heavy or sensitive topics.

Their immature minds cannot fathom the mixed signals and educational inconsistencies between their homes and at school. In this context, it is important to bear in mind that teachers are not babysitters and schools are not rehabilitation centres.

Improper parenting style is a major contributor to the erosion of a child’s morals. The saying goes that bamboo should be shaped while it is still a shoot. However, many parents fail to guide their children in their formative years.

Some parents are too permissive, leaving children without boundaries, while others are too harsh, causing children to grow up with resentment. Parents who only know how to punish without understanding the child’s soul will not raise individuals with proper morals.

Another concerning matter is the neglect of religious and moral education in raising children, which should be the foundation from early childhood. If parents fail to instil these values, they will be nurturing the roots of wrongdoing within their own homes.

Parents who focus solely on academic excellence imply that good grades are more valuable than morals and integrity. This perception creates a generation that is intelligent on paper but empty in soul, or individuals who know how to study but not how to behave.

When under pressure, these children do not know how to navigate themselves correctly, thus choosing the easy way out by lying, stealing, or acting violently.

Parental responsibility does not end at the doorstep. Yet, many only appear when their children are punished, not when guidance is needed.

Some parents go to the extent of defending their child’s wrongdoing without investigating the truth and treating discipline like the enemy. Parents should understand that love is not an excuse to allow children unrestricted freedom.

This attitude sows the seeds of moral decay, as children learn that every mistake can be excused with an explanation, rather than through genuine reflection. When parents pressure schools to relax discipline, the teacher’s authority is weakened, and respect is lost.

Thus, it becomes impossible for society to curb juvenile crimes if parents continue to undermine the final bastion of education.

In a nutshell, society should refrain from conveniently blaming schools whenever children fail to control themselves. Teachers are not responsible for the corruption of children, contrary to popular beliefs.

The root of this problem lies in a home that is negligent, indulgent, and lacking in proper guidance. If this negligence continues, the current and future generations will be plagued with the loss of manners, shame, and soul.

The role of schools is to educate and facilitate the children’s character development and not construct an individual from the ground up. That obligation belongs to parents as the children’s primary caretakers, hence the first line of guidance, monitoring, mentoring, and setting of examples.

The failure in this role will trigger a chain reaction of moral decline and juvenile delinquency in this generation and the next. 

Dr Syarifah Maisarah Syed Alwi is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya. She is also a Clinical Psychologist.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.