Feeling Special and Feeling Lousy

• In Event: Male Teachers as Cultural Workers in the Lives of Children, Families, and Communities

Abstract

Interactions with students are some of the most defining moments of a teacher’s career. By reflecting on these moments teachers can grow and come to know a greater sense of self as a teacher. We look and how we see effects what we see. At this risk of offending scholarly sensibilities, this presenter shares some very humbling personal stories of his experiences as teacher in order to provide moments upon which to reflect and gain clarity and insight into what it means for him to be a teacher. As Grumet (1991) points out, when these stories “are omitted from our scholarship, when we look elsewhere, anywhere, for our sources, our reasons and motives, we perpetuate and exaggerate our exile. We deny… and in that denial we cut the ground right out from under us” (pp. 83-84).

In the first of these stories he recalls a child identified as special needs. He reflects on how the special education system’s language and conceptual framework, noting that she was managed through medication, behavior programs, and education plans; she became a case to be managed; her humanity became secondary, perhaps even tertiary. Each morning as school began her heavy drug intake was abundantly apparent when one looked into her eyes. While it turned out that at least one of her diagnoses was not correct, the more significant aspect of this story is the opportunity it provided the presenter for reflection on his own self as a teacher as he wondered whether his method for dealing with her situation was ideal.

In the second narrative this presenter considers the impact of a lice inspection on his classroom. He describes a lie he told the children to help offset the stigma associated with lice, a lie which turned out to have more far-reaching implications that he at first anticipated. He concludes that, to be a good teacher, one must be attentive to how he perceives the children in his care; how he perceives himself and how they perceive him, but most importantly, how they perceive themselves.

After hearing these stories, the audience will have the opportunity to engage in reflection with the presenter and to collectively consider how these stories have impacted the presenter as well as how the lessons from these stories can be used to influence the teaching profession as a whole.

References:
Grumet, M. (1991). Curriculum and the art of daily life. In G. Willis & W.H. Schubert (Eds.), Reflections form the heart of education inquiry (pp. 74-89). New York: SUNY

Author

• Patrick J. Lewis, University of Regina