Chris in the Classroom

Christin Scheufele, a comedian with over a decade of experience teaching, visited Billings Central Catholic High School on October 5 to teach about resilience. Scheufele used to be a music teacher, but now he travels around the country to spread his message on how to deal with life in school.

Scheufele started off the assembly, joking, “I had more problems in school than the amount of boyfriends Taylor Swift has had.” Scheufele struggled with his peers who said mean things to him while he was growing up because he didn’t look like the other kids. He was ashamed of everything from the clothes he wore, to the activities he enjoyed, to the car he drove. As he grew up, Scheufele wondered why people were so mean, and why the things they said hurt so deeply. He realized one of the main reasons his peers did this was because they liked to see him get upset.

Scheufele explained that he doesn’t like the word “bully” to describe these types of actions. Instead, he tries to point out the specific behaviors that happen in these situations. He says that if a student can talk about a specific problem, then they can find a specific solution.

He spoke about what students can do when someone is mean to them. Scheufele used to think the way to get respect was to change himself into who the popular kids were. To accomplish this, he did things like asking a girl out. The girl he asked out rejected him. He said that life hit him so hard he begged to stay at home so he didn’t have to go to school. He said, “People told me to fight back or tell on the bully, but those are not the right answers.”

Scheufele stated, “You only get stronger when you fix it yourself.” He finally learned the secret and when he called up three volunteers, he demonstrated it. He said, “Your emotions happen in an ABC pattern.”

The first part of the pattern is the activating event. The second part consists of the beliefs that make students feel an emotion, and then the final part occurs when students blame their emotions on those events, which is the consequence.

Scheufele says, “Words only have the power that the listener gives them.” He called up a volunteer from the freshmen class, Riley Pham, to help show how resilience works. Scheufele asked Pham to insult him as part of the demonstration. As the volunteer kept insulting Scheufele, he showed the different reactions somebody could have to those insults. When Scheufele, acted as if the mean insults bounced right off of him, the insults stopped. It ended with Pham showing respect back toward him.

The student body learned an important lesson because of this assembly that brought humor to a serious issue. Now, students are better equipped to use resilience in the classroom.