As most of you know my students are pulled from two surrounding counties to be in my classroom. The teacher next door and I have a total of ten children. All with multiple severe and profound disabilities. Two students in the class room can walk. Those are the only two out of ten. Our children are considered non-mobile and non-verbal.
A few weeks ago I was asked to attend a conference. This speaker was supposedly the best of the best and had taught everything in the book. I was so excited to FINALLY meet someone else besides myself and the teacher next door who taught our types of students. I was in for a rude awakening. During his speech I became more and more curious about his experience with multi-handicapped special education students. After many attempts, I finally got my turn to speak with him during a lunch break. I asked him if he had any advice or activities he knew of for teachers of multi-handicapped special education teachers. His response "Oh you mean those with dyslexia and ADHD?" My heart sank and I knew this was not headed in a direction that would be pretty. It may be my first year teaching, but I am very passionate about my students in almost a motherly protective way. Little did I know his next student would slap me with a reality check so hard my head would spin.
As I tried to explain to him no my students have a multitude of disabilities all rolled into one and began to name off their situations I was abruptly stopped with seven words that sent chills up my spine. "Why aren't your students in a home?" And by "home" he meant a live in facility instead of being aloud to a regular classroom where we can work on things that help them grow to be strong adults that would be OK in society when they "graduated." As I heard these words I could feel my face getting warm and red. I knew that my mama bear instincts wanted to rip this guy to shreds and display them for all to see. Letting all who would dare say my students should be in a home instead of a classroom see what would happen to them. How dare he try to say that just because my students don't learn like other students that they belong in a home...yeah my head was spinning with the how dare he's and who is he to say. I just tried as nicely as I could to excuse myself and return to my chair to collect my thoughts before I went into bear mode.
As I sit in my chair fuming it hit me, this poor speak whom I have just mentally ripped to shreds and displayed the left over parts didn't say that sentence because he thought my job as a teacher was null and void and my students should be shunned away to a dark dungeon, it was because he had never seen or experienced a classroom for children such as these and was unaware of the great advantages to having children in our environment. I lost a great opportunity to bring awareness of what we do, and for that I have been kicking myself everyday.
It's time for me to stand up and roar and let these people know just how amazing these ten individuals are, and the remarkable affect they can have on you if you just take the time to really know them not just stare.
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