Attacking School Fears There are real fears and imagined ones. Most school dangers are imagined. There is little about the game that is worth the worry and fear most people experience. However, whether they intend it or not, school institutions have made most people think otherwise. Rarely are students taught the skills for school success, those which really do affect their grades. In varying degrees, most have learned to fear teachers and classrooms, textbooks and tests. And even though they have learned coping tactics, many will continue their old emotional habits long after the danger is past. So first let’s determine what the fears are, and then attack them in a good problem-solving fashion. Often something else is the real problem, not what you first identified. Decide if it is a real danger or only an imagined one. Fear of failure If you finished high school with a C or better, this is an unreal danger. You have plenty of ability to meet college demands. Most undergraduate-level courses don’t expect you to be an expert scholar. Teachers know it takes time for you to adjust. And most assignments will be within reason, more likely to be boring than difficult. Occasionally you may encounter an impossible course but not frequently enough to ruin you. Rarely is it lack of ability which makes people fail. Once you have had a few success, you will begin to shed this fear. Fear of teachers This is clearly an unreal fear. Look around at your fellow students. Some of them will be teachers. As you can see, there is nothing special about them. They have the full range of human strengths and weakness. They are not gods. Don’t hand over power to them that they don’t really have. One way to realize their humanness is to get to know a few out of class. Visit their offices. Chat about other things than school occasionally. A good teacher will want you to feel at ease. Your ease makes teacher feel more comfortable, too, and the learning process flows better. Teachers are full of unreal dangers, too. Many even fear students. One teacher listed in an article fifteen things he feared in the classroom. So try switching your perception around. See what you can do to make teachers feel safe. They will do a better job for you. Fear of talking in class This is an unreal fear, too. Most people are afraid of looking foolish. But if you examine it, either you are a fool or you aren’t. More accurately, everyone is a fool some of the time. So what, Anyone who is afraid of making a fool of himself can never learn. Besides, it is vain to dwell on how one looks to others. As your own experience will show, people don’t spend very much time thinking about the mistakes of others. They are much more concerned with themselves. An hour later they will not even remember was made or that you were the one who made it. Also keep in mind that your performance in class is almost never the main source of your grade. Any way you look at it, such fear is exaggerated. Fear of the unknown There is a certain amount of sense in this fear----as long as it is used productively. It can keep you alert in new situations and help you watch for real danger. The future can be dangerous. One of these days it will kill you. But to let it keep you from trying new things would be to give up life. Your own experience shows that most of the time things work out all right. The more things you try out, the more you will feel at home.