The class crier

Whiney Kid in my Wednesday art class is sometimes almost unbearable. From the very first class, he seemed mopey and unwilling to do much. I believe most people are pretty optimistic (yes, even the emo among us), but there are born pessimists and Whiney Kid is one of them.

It has been excruciatingly difficult to get him to do ANYTHING. He doesn't want to draw. He doesn't want to color. he doesn't follow the tips and tricks I give the class for experimenting with individual artistic style. Art class is extra-curricular, and I'm much more lenient than I would be in a self-contained classroom. The one main rule for students is they can pretty much do anything that doesn't harm other people, and doesn't get in the way of other people from doing their art.

Whiney Kid is quite persistent with his whininess. To the point that it affects the students around him. He's like that white mochi thing in those Zoloft commercials before the Zoloft - just a big gray cloud of depressing vibes around him. It got so bad one day that he started crying. Not bawling, but the passive aggressive type of crying where you really can't help it because you are just so. Very. Depressed.

I've had crying kids in class before. For the most part, they cry because they aren't feeling well, or because they know they are in deep, deep trouble. One of my first grade students from phase II only cries when she wants her own way. One of my fifth grade students cries because she doesn't want people to think she's stupid (which she is not, she just thinks other people thinks she is, in that pre-teen self-conscious way).

So I know how to deal with them. I made sure the rest of the class was busy and on task, then knelt down and told Whiney Kid to spill it. Out came this long explanation of the woes of his life: how he missed the art class he took in kindergarden, how his mom made him go to this art class because his younger brother wanted to, how this was never his idea anyway how he was super sensitive to the sounds and lights in the room (migraine? in a 7-year-old? huh, I guess it could happen), and a bunch of mumbled stuff that I didn't quite catch but wasn't necessary for me to understand because he just needed to get it off his chest.

When he was done, I acknowledge how fun his kindergarden art class sounded. I sympathized with the tension between him and his mom, and told him that whatever disagreement he has with her needs to be worked out by them two. I firmly told him that the YR art classes are different, and we mainly only use markers and color pencils. I told him I can't make him do this art, he is the one who controls his own hand with the pencil in it. But he did not have a right to share his miserableness in a way that makes his classmates uncomfortable or distracts them from their work. I told him he had a choice: he can give the drawing class a chance, or he can put his head down and wait for the end. For either of those choices, I would allow him to go to the bathroom to wash his face, or get a drink of water and come back.

He did a little bit of both the drawing and the putting his head down. He didn't take the offer of leaving the room to collect himself, but he did stop whining and sucked it in. The following week, he seemed much more cheerful. For him, I mean. He didn't smile, now was he very energetic. But he didn't whine (much) either. I dismissed the class at the end, and watched them leave with their waiting parents/grandparents. Whiney Kid politely waved and said, "Bye, Ms. Ng" in reply to my wave and "See you later."