Curing the Giggles
How to Let Teenagers Vent
I regularly teach religion classes to high school students at my church. One year, I was assigned to a group of ninth grade boys. Although leery about teaching a bunch of pubescent kids fresh out of junior high school, I ended up with six respectful and courteous young men. However, they still had the restlessness and impulsiveness one might expect from 14-year-old boys. With their attention spans only slightly longer than a house fly, I had to learn how to shift gears quickly and often to keep them engaged.
One day, during a prayer service in the church, while sitting a few rows in back of the boys, I noticed one of them afflicted with a case of the “giggles”. Remember those times as a kid being in a place where you had to keep quiet, like a classroom or library? Then, a random thought entered your brain, triggering the uncontrollable urge to burst out laughing, but you were forced to hold it in? It was torture.
That poor kid. From the back, his head was bowed, as if in prayer, but it did not hide his muffled snickering. His shoulders would shake uncontrollably, then stop, then shake, again and again. But then it started to spread like prairie fire. A second boy got the giggles, then a third, then a fourth, and then a fifth. Even the sixth started grinning, ready to blow at any second.
My first instinct was to march over, scold them quietly, and separate them. But that would not have solved the problem. Rather, it would have spread the giggles even further around the church. The guys were close to bursting a blood vessel, so I had to act fast.
I walked over and stood at the end of their row with a stern look. After getting their attention, I motioned them to follow me. Their faces grew worried as I led them straight out of the building. They were anticipating me giving them a good tongue-lashing.
Outside the church, they faced me, waiting for the worst. They were trying to look serious, but a few were still snickering, trying to suppress their giggles. I paused a few seconds, scanning their faces to verify direct eye contact with each of them.
Then I said, “Look, I’m not exactly sure what was going on in there . . . but right now I’m giving you exactly one minute to get it out of your systems.” Then, looking at my watch, I said, “Go!”
They stared at me for a second, not quite digesting what they heard. They glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes. And then . . .
Like six geysers, they erupted in laughter! Two of them were doubled over, clutching their stomachs. Another was literally on his hands and knees shaking with laughter. Another lost his balance, almost falling on his backside, prompting even more hysterical laughter.
I stood there watching them, slowly shaking my head. Then I chuckled to myself, realizing my hunch was correct. Like a whistling tea kettle boiling on a stove, the boys needed an outlet to release their pent-up emotional pressure. And did they ever!
After a minute — and it really was only a minute — they collected themselves and stood up to face me. Their faces were still red from laughing, but now showed complete relief.
I looked at them and asked, “Feel better now?”
“Yeah”, they replied with a deep exhale.
“Okay,” I said. “But now you owe me.”
“Huh?”
“I brought you outside to get it all out of your systems. So, we will now conduct ourselves in church the way we should?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” I said, opening the door. “Let’s go back in.”
They were perfect gentlemen the rest of the day.
Working with these kids reminds me that the results you get in life are all about three things:
- How you choose to react to someone’s behavior is likely how they will react to you.
- When someone is feeling an emotion very strongly, nothing makes a difference until they are given an outlet to release that emotion.
- It is okay sometimes to cut people a little slack without having to sacrifice your own principles.
There were a few more giggles and geysers the rest of the year. But being the respectful and courteous young men they were, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
