When a child starting elementary school is anxious and afraid of the teacher, are they necessarily misbehaving?

Some reactions when children first enter elementary school may not be deliberate misbehavior. They may relate to anxiety, fear of the teacher, or unfamiliarity with school. Adults cannot immediately decide a child is bad or disobedient simply because the child does not act as they wish.

I still remember some things from first grade. I actually enjoyed school, meeting classmates, and playing together, but also felt the teacher was very stern. For a period, I wanted to urinate two or three times in one lesson, yet passed little urine when I went. The teacher therefore asked my mother to come to school and suggested taking me to a doctor.

Looking back now, I think I may have been very nervous then, but I no longer remember whether I actually saw a doctor afterward. I cannot say this cause was medically confirmed. The experience helps me understand that first graders may face pressures adults have not noticed. My daughter also said a stern teacher made first grade academically stressful. However, she did not experience the teacher's humiliation and physical punishment described in the news I recounted then. These cannot be combined into one case.

Teaching first graders really is demanding. Children are lively and teachers want to establish rules, which I understand. But understanding teachers' difficulties does not mean accepting adults hurting or humiliating children after losing emotional control. I discussed that news story to show how, in an emotionally explosive moment, people may do things they ordinarily know they should not.

So we need to examine both whether the child has difficulties requiring understanding and whether the adult's emotions have become uncontrolled. Frightening a child into submission or hurting them cannot simply be called teaching rules well.