Teacher 'Gaslights' A Difficult Student During A Presentation To Demonstrate The Effects Of His Behavior
Did the teacher use the right approach by showing the student what he put them through?
Dragana Gordic | Shutterstock Every teacher has their stories of students who are difficult to deal with and teach. There's a fine line between keeping control of the class and responding emotionally, however. Typically, teachers have no choice but to push forward as well as they possibly can in the hopes that whatever misbehavior is occurring will fizzle out or be handled by administrators outside the classroom.
It’s rare that students get a taste of their own medicine, but one teacher was able to do just that by turning the tables on a student and mirroring his attitude right back at him.
A teacher admitted to ‘gaslighting’ one of their students to show him what his behavior was like.
An anonymous ninth-grade teacher shared the amusing experience they had with a student on Reddit.
“I have a student, we’ll name him John,” the teacher wrote. “For the past few months, John has been the bane of my existence. Talking nonstop, never seated, needs to be redirected constantly, submits almost no work, on his phone constantly, and when confronted about his test performance, blames me for ‘not teaching that.’”
In an effort to explain their frustration but still honor their mission to educate, the teacher wrote, “The lesson: Teach John what it’s like to teach John.” Because sometimes the only way to teach is by example.
Max Fischer | Pexels
To prevent a problem student from failing, the teacher was forced to give him an extra-credit assignment.
“So that he didn’t fail the quarter, upon the request of his mother (and admin forcing my hand), I gave an extra credit project,” they continued. “At first I wasn’t too happy about this, but I quickly realized it was a wonderful opportunity.”
To simulate a real classroom environment, the teacher gathered some colleagues to watch John give a presentation. They did much more than just observe, though. “During the presentation, my colleague was on his phone the whole time,” they said. “Myself and another colleague talked over John multiple times. The fourth interrupted with, ‘Sorry John, I just need to run to that bathroom really quickly,’ just to come back in and interrupt with more questions.”
“To his credit, John powered through the presentation. At the end, I turned to him and asked, ‘How can I give you credit for this when you didn’t mention X, Y or Z?’ (All things he did in fact mention),” they recounted. “‘You weren’t very clear about X.’ (There was a whole slide about X).”
“We went back and forth, with John getting increasingly frustrated, defending himself and complaining about how we weren’t a very good audience,” they stated. “He was turning red explaining that if we just listened and let him present, we would’ve seen these things. Interesting.”
The student became frustrated after his presentation, but according to the teacher, he had a moment of realization that made the lesson come together.
“After a few minutes, the realization hit,” they said. “While he didn’t say anything, the lightbulb that went off in his head said everything I needed to hear.”
For anyone concerned, the teacher clarified that John would be graded based on his work.
“Of course, I’ll grade John on the actual work he turned in, not the presentation. (And I did tell him this, I’m not evil),” they shared. “But, something tells me next quarter will be a lot smoother, for both me and John. Here’s to hoping.”
It’s unclear if this teacher handled this situation correctly.
The teacher’s fellow Redditors could not have been more thrilled with their reaction to their student’s misbehavior. Some even shared stories of when they had done similar things in their own classrooms.
However, this may not have been the best tactic for the teacher to take. Michael Linson of Smart Classroom Management said, “‘Every day is a new day’ should be your mantra with difficult students. They need to know that they have a clean slate to start each day — and so do you.”
Max Fischer | Pexels
If each day is to be treated as a new opportunity, it sounds like this teacher may have done the opposite of what was appropriate. Every situation and every student is different, however. In the same way parenting is different for each child, teaching is different for each child. Giving John a clean slate after every behavioral problem didn't work in the past so this teacher tried something new. While we don't know if the lesson will stick, it was certainly better than ignoring past transgressions or simply dealing with future problems in the principle's office.
It must have been nearly impossible to deal with a student as difficult as John all semester, and then be informed that you have to help him pass by offering an extra credit assignment. Everyone has their limits, including teachers. This one may have felt there was simply nothing else left to do.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.