Human behavior is a function of the environment and the genes. Being a function of the environment, human personality is not static. It is dynamic and alive. It grows and changes for the better or for the worse. A favorable and healthy environment assists a person to self-actualize and become a better being while a toxic and unfavorable environment decasualizes a person and change him for the worse.
In view of the influence of environment in developing and shaping student behavior, it is imperative for educational institutions to provide a healthy and favorable environment for developing the students’ potentials to achieve the ultimate goal of education, that is to develop them into better human beings who can contribute for the betterment of our society and make the world a better place for generations to come.
The school environment can be favorable or toxic. A favorable school environment gives pleasurable experiences to her students helping them to self-actualize which is one of the five dimensions of KYKO personality while a toxic working environment gives painful experiences and de-actualizes the students’ behavior.
Factors that can contribute to a toxic school environment
School management
- Unclear vision and mission, goals, and objectives;
- Badly defined systems, policies, regulations, rules;
- Principles of management are violated;
- Resources are idle and inefficiently used;
- Disruption of unity of command;
- Policies of win-lose outcomes;
- People getting away with cheating and not doing work;
- Creating privileged groups in the school;
- Closed door policy;
- Poor staff fringe benefits.
Teacher
- Lazy and incompetent teacher;
- Teacher is bias and plays favoritism;
- Teacher’s teaching and learning process is fixed and boring;
- Teacher does not even know the students’ names;
- Teacher is unconcerned about student welfare;
- Teacher breaks the students’ self-esteem;
- Teacher uses threats and abusive language in classroom control;
- Teacher blames the students and their parents for poor academic performance;
- Teacher says one thing and does another – i.e. there is no congruence between what is said and what is done;
- Teacher enjoys gossiping, talking bad about others behind their backs;
- Teacher punishes students without counseling them;
- Teacher plays “God” with the students’ lives.
Interpersonal Relationship
- Unhealthy politicking;
- Lack of cooperation among teachers;
- Backstabbing;
- Rumor mongering;
- Alienation;
- Mistrust;
Unhealthy school environment
- Overcrowded classrooms;
- Lack of qualified teachers;
- Unsafe school environment;
- Dirty and badly maintained school buildings;
- Poor surrounding grounds, such as noise, temperature, and lighting;
- Lack of physical safety for example the existence of gangsters and bullies in school;
- Lack of psychological safety due to attitude of the academic and nonacademic staff;
- Lack of facilities and resources for teaching and learning.
A toxic school environment provides bad and painful experiences for the students making their school life miserable, fearful and boring. The painful experiences affect adversely their mental and psychological dispositions. Students become neurotic, hate school and become de-actualized, producing low achievers, deviants and potential criminals in the process.