Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Standing Your Ground in the Face of Simple Manipulation

"Ouch," he said as I stood in front of the door before dismissal.

My small group as I call them, my permanent SETSS group of mostly self-contained students, has developed a bad habit of walking into the hall, which in my tiny school is also the office area, before the bell.

"What do you mean ouch?" I asked him.

"You're blocking the door. You're in my way! Ouch. "

I smiled calmly. "Where are you hurt?"

He hesitated before responding with a gesture. "Here," he said, moving his hand in circular fashion indicating the hurt was in his chest, heart, stomach, basically his entire torso area.

I stayed put.  This was a simple attempt at manipulation. There was more than enough space between us and he, and his classmates, were going to wait for bell this time.

Another instance:
There was the girl who I told discreetly to zipper her pants. She loudly replied, "You're thinking negative!"  My response, "no, you need to present yourself appropriately."  Then I walked away.  I was happy to hear another student tell her, that she was the one being negative. Unfortunately, things are easily misconstrued, so that was that was a conversation for a teacher not to engage in, but for a student to get the truth across.

Love,
Miss M

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