GUIDANCE NEEDS AND PROBLEMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Chapter 28

GUIDANCE NEEDS AND PROBLEMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

The Chapter at a Glance

Home-centered problems.

School-centered problems.

Community-centered problems.

An adequate guidance program.

          In order to succeed in administering guidance to young people one must know their life and the nature and extent of the problems for which they need guidance. The main problems which usually confront children during their everyday life can be classified into the following three categories:-- 

          (a) Home-centered problems,

          (b) School-centered problems, and

          (c) Community-centered problems.

Home-Centered Problems

          The various needs and problems of children which centre round their home life are as follows:—

(a)         Biological needs and related problems,

(b)         Psychological needs and related problems, and

(c)          Social needs and related problems.

Biological Needs and Problems

          At birth the human individual is absolutely helpless. In order to survive and grow up he needs continued protection and nourishment from his parents. As he grows older he needs to be guided regarding toilet routines, rest and sleep habits, food values, avoidance of physical dangers threatening life, etc.

          Adequate guidance regarding these biological needs and the various problems associated with them is indispensable for survival and healthy growth of a child. Negligence or inadequate guidance results in all kinds of complications and undesirable developments.

Psychological Needs and Problems

          On the psychological side, the child needs emotional warmth and security at home. A child who is denied affection at home and made to feel insecure by his parents due to any adverse factors in the home life has little chance to develop into a healthy and efficient adult.

           

          Parents also need to guide the child into developing certain desirable mental traits, e.g., cheerfulness, perseverance, etc. They should safeguard against the development of undesirable traits in him like temper tantrums, impassiveness etc. The aim should be to so guide the child as to enable him to develop into a mentally adjusted and healthy adult.

Social Needs and Problems

          Children also need guidance in the art of sociability. Human beings are gregarious by nature. But if the social instinct is denied proper guidance during childhood, it is liable to develop in undesirable directions, e.g., the formation of anti-social and delinquent groups or gangs, etc. Parents should, therefore, remain vigilant in ensuring that children develop the right attitudes towards other children and adults around them, during their playful activities and general social interconnections in and outside the home.

          Children who are deprived of proper early social guidance at home are liable to develop into unsocial and introverted personalities. They may even grow into being anti-social, delin­quent and criminal adults in later life.

Children need, stage by stage as they grow up to adulthood, elementary knowledge about opposite sex and appro­priate guidance in their healthy mutual relationship within the sacred bounds of Islam. Co-education in the schools and other education institutions, after their age of 10, is not at all a healthy practice. We must not be following the West blindly, it is now suffering tremendously and irretrievably due to a deliberate free mixing of opposite sexes at all levels.

School-Centered Problems

          On entering school, a child's expanded social and cultural horizons open up before him infinite opportunities of progress and development. But these developmental opportunities and possibilities can only be exploited to the full if the child gets adequate and continued guidance from his school teachers.

          The problems regarding which a child needs guidance at school are as follow:-

(a)         Academic problems.

(b)         Vocational problems.

(c)          Personal problems, and

(d)         Social problems

The Academic Problems

          A child can learn the three Rs without tears only if the teacher really knows the art of teaching young children. Efficiency in teaching methods necessitates a thorough knowledge of the psychology of child learning. Unless the teaching methods that a teacher employs in the class room are sound, pleasant and stimulating, the child will make little academic progress at the school.

          As he advances in age, child needs guidance is making the correct selection of the school subjects which are most suited to his natural aptitudes. While offering guidance, a teacher should also be mindful of the individual differences, abilities and handicaps of each one of the children. Uniformed treatment and guidance of every child irrespective of his individual personality is by no means a safe course to follow.

Vocational Problem

          Children’s vocational aptitudes need to be assessed as early as possible in their school career. Before the school leaving age the teacher must have given them an appropriate bias and sufficient training for a specific vocation which appeals to them most and for which they are most suited.

          An adequate vocational guidance at the school level can avert lot of misfits in professions which can be a source of great unhappiness to the individual in later life. Early vocational guidance thus prevents tremendous human and material loss to the nation.

Personal Problems

          The main personal problems of the school child pertain to his:--      

(a) Physical health, and

(b) Mental health.

          The school child needs guidance regarding his physical health and development. This need must be met by providing adequate medical health services at the school campus.

          For his mental health the child needs security and emotional nourishment in school. He must feel at home in the class­room. The school authorities must take all appropriate measures to see that every child feels at ease during the course of all the school activities. Should a child experience some emotional perplexity, the teacher should endeavor to understand it from the child's point of view. By providing him with sympathetic guidance, he should enable the child to face and solve his prob­lems as amicably as possible.

Social Problems

          The social problems of the school child are manifold. A child needs adequate social guidance in order to make satisfying adjustments with his class-mates, teachers and everyone he comes in contact with during his stay at the school. Providing appropriate guidance to children to enable them to meet their social problems effectively is as fundamental a duty of the school teacher as imparting academic instruction.

Community-Centered Problems

          Besides the problems which revolve the home and the school, children have certain problems which spring from the community. In   order   to   meet    those   problems   effectively, children need guidance both at home and at school.

          Some of the main problems falling under this group are as follows:—

          (a) Problems of occupational adjustment,

          (b) Problems of material adjustment, and

          (c) Problems of general attitudes and social behavior.

Problems of Occupational Adjustment

          The health of a community is largely dependent upon voca­tionally capable, efficient, and adjusted individuals.   If children ** are given adequate vocational guidance and training by teachers and parents, they have abundant chances of choosing for themselves the right occupations. Developing professional health and efficiency and adjusting to their colleagues in the profession are the main spheres in which guidance is needed during adoles­cence and towards later life. Such a task can be better per­formed by specialized vocational guidance agencies.

          It is hardly necessary to re-emphasize that adequate voca­tional guidance averts a great deal of professional inefficiency, misplacement and maladjustment. Occupational maladjustment is a serious mental and economic drain on the resources of a nation.

Problems of Marital Adjustment

          In order grow up to be successful husbands and wives; children need preliminary orientation and training for marital adjustment at home and school. Parental education and guidance would save many a child from becoming unsuccessful in married life and thus having his entire life ruined by marital maladjustments and failures.

          Maritally maladjusted parents are a serious social liability not only to their children but to the entire community.

Problems of General Attitudes and Social Behavior

          A child must be trained to live and let others live peacefully, cheerfully and creatively.    For this he needs suitable guidance for the development of desirable attitudes and outlooks on life in general. Early guidance in a healthy and graceful social behavior saves the child, his parents, his future family and the whole of the community from innumerable unpleasant developments.

An Adequate Guidance Program

          An adequate guidance program, whether at home or at school or at a specialized guidance agency, is comprehensive and balanced in outlook. It endeavors to understand all the manifold needs and problems of children. It makes a resolute attempt to meet them adequately and scientifically by offering most appropriate, and balanced guidance programs to children, parents, teachers and community workers.