Crying

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Home : 2001 : August : 9

Crying
By Joys

I had a 4th grade student once whose tears would just roll down her face, usually because she would get so angry that she'd nearly explode. At first I tried really hard to talk to her and get her to open up to me, so I could
help her. Later on I saw that she was just going to cry until she got "it" out of her system. She wasn't loud about it, so I'd just have her move away from her group to a quieter spot for privacy and a chance to unwind a little. She would put her head down on her arms and just cry, or she would pull her T-shirt neck up over her face to soak up the tears. Either way, my other students

always knew she was crying. Sometimes they'd look at me like -- "Are you just going to let her cry?" I would just go on with the lesson or whatever I was doing. It was kind of weird at first, but then it got a whole lot better. I think she realized that I cared very much about her, but I could not allow her to disrupt learning because of her anger and tears. She eventually realized if it started, she would be asked to move to "safe" area of the room, and no one was going to make a big a deal out of her crying. The attention she usually got from the angry outbursts, stomping, slamming, and inevitable crying spells just wasn't going to happen any more. Hallelujah!