Passage 6

Nine -years- old Suresh was troublesome at school.His parents were well off, but they lived separately.His father had married another woman and left Suresh's mother.Suresh was in the habit of pushing children for no apparent reason, and once he scratched a girl's leg with a pencil and it bled.

Suresh was also a problem at home.There was a close connection between his home circumstances and his behavior at school. He lived with his mother and younger brother with whom he quarreledall the time.His mother seemed to prefer his brother, who was much better behaved at home and much more successful at school than Suresh. Suresh made his mother angry .she tried not to favor her younger son. but she was aware that it seemed as if she did.

It seemed very obvious that Suresh'sattccks on other children at school were connected with his jealousy of his younger brother. He attached his brother at home, just as he attacked other children at school. His attacks on his brother were ,of course, linked to his feelings of being unwanted and unloved at home. They also ensured that his mother took notice to him.Similarly,his attacks on the others children at school gained him the teacher's attention, eg. when she talked to him, he could be very appealing. Just as his frequent quarrels with his younger brother could be seen as his way of telling his mother that he felt hurt by her preference for the younger child, he showed his teacher that he was hurt when she paid attention to other children. Neither his mother nor his teacher neglected him,but neither of them could give him as much as he desired.

Suresh's attention -seeking behavior made the teacher's life very difficult. She understood that he wanted and needed attention, yet, as he was only one of 40 children in the class she could not give him what he wanted. She also had to protect the other children from his attacks.So she had to reprimand him and punish him, just as his mother did at home.In this way Suresh was caught in a vicious circle which was difficult to break. He wanted to be loved, he felt angry because he could not get what he wanted, he attacked other children because he was angry, and therefore could not get the love that he wanted.