Smyth Reflection

Describing:
A child was angry and upset because the teacher told him off in front of the class. He
got upset and started crying, and he walked away from his table and sat on the floor
behind a bookshelf crying. I went over to him whilst the class was having a test, and I
asked him why he was upset. He started swearing and couldn’t control his breath
because he was crying so much.

Informing:
The class was having a spelling test, and once they had done their words
independently, they were told to get a red pen to mark their answers. One student
could not find his red pen, and was told off in front of the whole class because they
were waiting for him, but he said he couldn’t find it. He didn’t have his red pen, and
the class started marking their work. Upset, he walked away from his desk and sat
behind a bookshelf crying. I went over to the student and crouched on his level to try
and talk to him. He started swearing and crying hysterically, perhaps because he
was embarrassed in front of the whole class. I tried to calm him down, and I asked
him to come outside the classroom for some fresh air and a drink of water. I tried to
talk to him, and told him to take deep breaths to get control of his breath, and then to
walk around in circles instead of sitting and crying. I stayed with him because he was
still upset and didn’t want to go in the classroom and it was morning tea shortly after,
and the teacher then came and spoke to him privately once the class was
dismissed.

Confronting:
The reason that I immediately went to the student when he went to the corner to cry
was because I felt sorry for him and I wanted to help him. I thought that he might
have been upset because he was embarrassed at being told off in front of the class
and perhaps thought it was unfair. It makes me sad to see others upset, and I always
want to help - it is a part of my nature and personality to be helpful and caring. The
way I was talking to the student was to put his thoughts and his feelings as the
priority in the conversation, and to know that I understood and I wanted to help him. I
wanted to calm him down, and let him know that he doesn’t have to get upset about
this - without making his feelings seem invalid. I have learnt how to talk to
sad/upset/angry (and many other) people from my voluntary work at Youthline. I
would talk to distraught people on the phone and I would be responsible to support
that person, make them feel understood and to try and calm them down and feel
more positive by the end of the call. Therefore, this experience has allowed me to
gain the knowledge and conversational quality to support someone who is not feeling
great about any particular situation. I stayed with the student because I didn’t want
him to feel unsupported or uncared for if I left him outside - and I couldn’t convince
him to come inside the classroom. I didn’t want to push him, because he may have
seen me as a trusted person to confide in that moment. I also decided not to tell a
teacher that he swore. I have had a conversation with teachers about swearing
before, and they have said that if it doesn’t harm another student or they didn’t mean
to then it should be ignored rather than made a big deal out of. I decided that this
student didn’t say it to anyone in particular, he was very upset and does not usually
use this kind of language. I didn’t want to make the situation worse. However, when
he did swear I said ‘hey, there’s no need for that” and left it.

Reconstructing:
I think that I did the right thing to go over to him, listen to him, help him and to try and
calm him down. If he was left alone then he may have felt more angry or upset for a
longer period of time, and may have felt that the teacher didn’t care. Perhaps I
shouldn’t have stayed with him for as long as I did, or maybe it was the right thing to
do when he refused to come in the classroom. Maybe I should have told a teacher
about the swearing, but I made the decision then to ignore it based on what I have
been told.