I wake up every day and do not want to come to school. You made me have to sit away from my friends because I could not “behave” properly at the table with the rest of the group. But you knew that I was born addicted to alcohol and drugs because my mommy drank and smoked pot while she was pregnant with me. The main problem was that I kept taking the scissors out and was not supposed to. You told me not to do that many times, but because my brain is messed up, it does not work as well as the other kids and I kept impulsively doing it. You moved me away from the other kids to “protect them” from my scissor misbehavior. I wonder why you did not move the scissors away from all of us so that I could still have friends. Remember, my brain is messed up, but, I do have feelings the same as the others.
When you made me sit away from the other kids, it was like you telling all of them that I was the “Bad Kid” in class and then all of them started to tattle tale on me. All day long, I was watched for my every “mistake”. Did you not know that the kids went home and told their parents all about what bad things I did at school each day? Did you not know that no one wanted me as a friend. YOU socially excluded me and I was only 5.
You sat me away from everyone else because you did not want to take scissors out of supply boxes. You told a colleague who suggested it to you that you never had to do it in 25 years of teaching and you would not start now. You put your habit above the well-being of a child. That child was me. I already had hurdles and obstacles. You gave me more. Is that the kind of difference you wanted to make when you went into teaching?
Sincerely,
Your Student
I wrote this letter on behalf of a student I knew a few years ago. The lesson here is that the teacher had an opportunity to teach the whole classroom what community was. Instead, exclusion was taught and modeled. The child who needed EXTRA help with socializing was segregated. He missed a critical year of developing peer relationships. He wore a bulls-eye on his back as a 5 year old. A simple solution to the scissor issue would have been to collect the scissors in the classroom and keep them in a bin until the students needed scissors. I could see no reason that any kindergartner needed to have free access to them anyways. They could get them when they needed them and the child could remain with his peers.
Children with disabilities have a HUGE problem developing social relationships. As we move toward inclusive classrooms, educators MUST become educated in how to treat the WHOLE student…not just educate them in the content areas…but how to teach neuro-typical and those with disabilities how to form positive community relationships within the classrooms. That may mean adjusting who YOU as a teacher have been or are.
When a teacher writes a note for a sub and says “watch out for so and so” that teacher has usually already thrown a student under the bus. I wonder…does it ever occur to the teacher that perhaps the problem is THEM? Maybe it is their lack of flexibility, lack of knowledge, lack of willingness/time/ commitment to educate themself about a disorder…or just them wanting things their way no matter what and they are blind to the simple/best solution.
A highly qualified teacher is not just one who has a license and Praxis exams passed…it takes much more than that. It takes compassion, kindness, commitment, understanding and so much more. Not just for the “easy kids “ but for ALL kids.
