A professor of sociology at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Professor Kingdom Nwaenyi, has advised parents and school teachers to stop labelling children based on their academic performance.
The sociologist, in an interview, said when kids are labelled or favoured more than others, it can lead to emotional trauma, suicidal thoughts, nuisance to parents and society at large.
“When kids feel less loved, they feel alienated and such can lead to frustration. When they grow up with this mentality, they start to cause nuisance in the society.
” Favoritism is like an insidious snake that wriggle unnoticed under your classroom door, poisoning moral from the inside out, if left unchecked, it will slither into every area of classroom management.
” Apart from the fact that it causes alienation, it can also cause resentment, weakens self confidence and loss of motivation for class participation.”
“On the part of the parents, let’s take the biblical story of Jacob and Esau as an example. Esau was preferred by his dad while Jacob was his mum’s favorite, because of this personal preferences, these brothers almost killed themselves. This should not be so. Love should be shared equally.”
He also urged parents and teachers to stop favoritism and encourage equal love and attention.
“Every child should be embraced, loved and equal attention should be given. In the classroom, the dull children should be encouraged.
” Also, the intelligent ones should be taught to interact with the less intelligent ones, know the areas they are good at, and help them focus more on their areas of interest.
” Parents should not force their kids to pick a career of their choice, this is another reason why some kids don’t do well, because they are forced to have interest in what they may not want for themselves. Know their area of interest and encourage them towards it.”
