You made up your anger

Teachers make up their anger to justify yelling at students.

Whatever you’re mad about, you made it up.

Let’s look at this from a situation in a classroom. The students are talking, and the teacher can’t get them to settle down.

She uses her anger to exert control and get the kids to submit to her.

Then, when she is so upset that the kids understand that she is serious, they change their behavior and the teacher submits.

If she says there’s no other way to get them to be appropriate, you can use that excuse to allow anger to justify any action.

What if she started punching kids who weren’t being quiet? If it is anger that is driving her to that point, she can take responsibility away from herself and use anger as the scapegoat.

Lest you think I’m picking on teachers, anyone who is angry is also making up their anger to get control over someone else.

If you’re in traffic, and you start blaring your horn, it’s the same thing. You’re trying to get others to change their driving behavior based on your actions. (It doesn’t work, btw)

There are many different ways to control a room of loud, and rambunctious students. I knew an extremely talented second grade teacher who would either sing or whisper when she really wanted kids to listen. She never had to raise her voice and could quiet the room with different strategies.

Is that still getting the class to submit? Yes, of course, but when you realize that you make up your anger to justify your actions, you can start to see different ways to act in that instance.

For more information on Adlerian psychology in schools, follow me (@jethrojones) and retweet the first tweet in this thread.

Adlerian Psychology in Schools

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