By treating the meaningless giggling as a disease, for which kind words
and a remedy are appropriate, it becomes less desirable in the eyes of
the girls; it is like a headache or a cold. With the leader removed and
no irritating opposition on the part of the teacher, the giggling will
soon die down.
This attitude is not a pretense on the teacher’s part. The truth is that
spontaneous giggling is sometimes a sign of serious nervous trouble, and
suggests the need of a specialist’s care. Oftener, however, it is simply
the sign of poor nervous control, and can be overcome by a little wise
and kind guidance.
An epidemic of giggling becomes as irresistible to a group of little
girls, and often to big ones as well, as an epidemic of measles. They do
not know how to control it, and if they think it is going to tease the
teacher, they probably do not want to. The suggestion of the need of
control, the friendly helpfulness in proposing means of gaining this
control, and the readiness to allow legitimate laughter when it occurs,
all remove the idea of wrongdoing, blame, and antagonism. There is no
longer any fun in giggling to annoy the teacher; she is not annoyed, she
becomes sympathetic, and the teaser becomes conscious that something is
wrong with herself.
When the laughing first breaks out, however, and everything seems funny
to the pupils for the time being, then is a good time for the teacher to
say something funny too and thereby associate herself with the pleasure
the children are having. The fact of having indulged them in their
merriment for a moment will give her greater power to stop them when the
laugh is over.
Sometimes, too, an epidemic of laughing comes merely as a reaction from
a long continued period of study. It should not be treated as an offense
in such a case, but rather as a symptom of fatigue.