Anger Management

01.02.10

Anger is an emotion that at times consumes all of us and has the potential to cause:

• severe damage to relationships both in and out of the classroom
• a debilitating effect on our teaching and student learning
• unwanted explosive situations

To manage both our own and our students’ anger, it is essential to understand:

• what it is?
• what causes it?

Firstly, anger is a perfectly normal human function in all of us. It is caused by the infusion of adrenalin related chemicals into the bloodstream and it occurs when we feel that others:

• show us a lack of respect
• put us down; hurt the inner “me”
• make us feel powerless; a loser
• create feelings within that we don’t matter; we are seen as irrelevant
• don’t value our input or opinions; a sinking feeling of being under valued

There are basically two types of anger.

Controlled anger: this is good anger.
- it enables us to be assertive in dealing with uncomfortable situations
- it is empowering and often referred to as being “psyched up”

Uncontrolled anger: it consumes us as bad anger.
- it makes us aggressive and our normal functioning level is severely impacted upon
- it is debilitating and often referred to as “losing it”

It is important for all of us to understand that nobody else makes us angry, we do it ourselves; we choose to react to issues and situations. Our students and us must realise that we own the problem when it occurs.

To ensure that all of our students and ourselves are aware and prepared for the onset of anger, a proactive class activity is to:

• conduct a class brainstorm and compile a list of possible stimuli that may push our buttons
• create a plan of attack for each of them to minimise their impact
• ask students to individually identify their stimuli and build their personal defence plans
• then ask them to share their plans with their family and critical friend
• it would benefit us also to design our own anger plan
• the adopting this positive approach is preventative rather than curative; it’s all about building trusting relationships

The essence for controlling anger is:

• an “awareness” in ourselves and our students of what is happening to them; developing their emotional intelligences
• having a pathway to follow in curbing our and their anger
• a feeling of support
• a desire to be in control of both ourselves and themselves; all of us self managed

“Let he who would move the world, first move himself.”  Socrates