Infancy and childhood are the most formative periods of life and strong emotional experiences are likely to have lasting effects on habits and attitudes of children. That is why, modern education in the home and the school, insists that children should be treated more kindly and tenderly. The outbursts of anger, intense fear and the like which agitate mind should be avoided.
Emotions play a role of major importance in the child’s life. They add pleasure to his everyday experiences. These also serve as motivation to action. Every child enters the world with both pleasant and unpleasant things. They give him personal pleasure and satisfaction and also some of them make him unhappy and dissatisfied.
Childhood is the critical age in the development of emotions. People those who have predominantly happy memories of the childhood are better adjusted as adolescents and adults than those whose memories centre round unhappy experiences.
A healthy child is a happy child. Most parents want to guarantee their children a happy childhood. Parents often fail to recognize that happiness can not exist, if the Pleasant emotions are dominated by the unpleasant. At no age is this truer than during childhood.
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Children’s emotions are brief and also, they are intense. Again, children’s emotions are transitory. That is due to child’s rapid shifts from laughter to tears, from anger to smiles and from jealousy to affection and the vice versa. It is a fact that children’s emotions appear frequently and their emotional responses are different.
The emotions of children change in strength and also change in their pattern of emotional expression. As for example, a baby in distress gets tense, red and excited. A small child may break and throw things in anger or he my shout and wail in distress. An older child may curse or even abuse. A young man may just turn round and walk away or may protest by keeping silent or even being non-cooperative.
In course of emotional development, another type of change occurs in emotions due to increasing understanding of the environment. For example, emotions that arouse anger, fear or joy gradually change from simple to complex. Loud noise, violent pushing etc. cause fear.
Later, children are afraid of darkness, dog or policemen etc. Still later, probability of failure, punishment or any disgrace frightens them. In the beginning the sight of mother and feed gives joy. Later sweets, toys, ride in a car or affectionate petting of father gives pleasure; and still later, the prospect of winning a prize, getting the applause of teachers and friends or a cinema show is highly pleasant. That is because; young people’s emotions are centred round concrete objects and places.
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Emotions are good. They are called the spices of life. Individuals enjoy doing and making things, mixing with people and contributing to the general welfare and prosperity of society. These should be the objectives of all those who are responsible for the education of the young people. The adolescents, when keep themselves engaged in constructive work, much of stress and strain of emotions are avoided.
A highly educated, cultured person is he or she, who keeps his or her emotions under check. Sometimes he conceals in such a manner that other people are not able to find out what his or her inner feelings and emotions are. Emotional control may mean just suppression of emotions leading to maladjustments. The modern education does not advocate suppression of feelings and emotions, but expression of feelings and emotions, in a decent way.