Saturday, October 25, 2008
The Unstoppable Mouth....
Have you ever spoken without thinking? Have you ever opened your mouth and said something, only to wish that you had kept quiet? Have you ever had the sinking feeling that comes with realising the power of your words when the damage has already been done? I certainly have had this feeling. Far too often. There are many stories that I could tell you of times when I have spoken without thinking... many, many stories... yet one in particular stands out in my memory. Anyone who has ever worked in retail knows that talking is an essential skill in this line of work. Every customer who enters the shop must be greeted, asked how they are, and asked if they require further assistance. Yes.. I know that this is very annoying for busy shoppers in a hurry... but be nice to the poor kids, they will lose their jobs if they don't ask you these seemingly unimportant questions. And if they lose their jobs, whose money will they be able to waste on the endless stream of superficial rubbish that abounds from the retail industry? Anyway... one day at Australian Country Living, I was doing the rounds and greeting customers. I came across a little old lady who had her arm in a sling. She'd clearly had her left hand amputated, so I put on my biggest grin and asked her how she was doing. She was such a lovely lady and told me with a smile that she was doing quite well. Without missing a beat I then added "Can I give you a hand today?". As soon as these words came out of my mouth the smile would have slid from my face. I was mortified. I'm sure a hand is exactly what this poor woman wanted... and it was exactly what I couldn't give her! Candles, ornaments, flowers, trinkets.. sure, we had those... but hands..... ugh.... I managed to stutter a feeble apology and retreated before I could make a greater mess of things. Sometimes it would be nice to have a rewind button in life wouldn't it? So long as this also came with a delete button... having to relive these moments would just be awful. It's amazing how easy it is for our mouths to kick into gear before our brains even have a chance to contribute. Fortunately this lovely lady was very forgiving of my stupidity, but I'm sure that this isn't always the case. I was thinking about the power of speech this week because I spent some time working with 3/4 year olds with cerebral palsy. Some of these children had hearing impediments and intellectual impairments as well. As a result, many of them could not utter a word. If these beautiful children were able to give us eye contact it was cause for excitement! So this made me think about how much I take for granted the ability to speak, and whether I use this ability well. Do my words uplift and encourage those around me? Do they speak the truth? Do they bring joy and point out the beautiful things in life? Or are they thrown around willy nilly, causing destruction and hurt? It is so easy to be flippant with the things that we say, yet we have been given a gift that we should use with great care. Words have the power to build someone up, or to break them down. They can insult or they can encourage. Words have many other functions, but I guess the point that I am making is that words are powerful. Think about what you say before it is said, and pplleeaassee try not to hassle one-handed little old ladies, they've been through enough already.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Inclusive Intentions....
Hello fellow procrasties! (affectionate term for 'procrastinators' I'm trying out...).....
Today I have been thinking a lot about the inclusive education movement. As most of you may have guessed that's largely because I've recently started working at the Vincent Early Childhood Development Program as a relief teacher aide. Essentially it's the early childhood facility for really young children with special needs. Although if there is a need for a teacher aide at the Vincent Primary School they will also call me in. Vincent Primary School, as I learnt today, is a fully inclusive school, which means that they mainstream students who would otherwise be placed in special schools. Today I was working with a grade 4/5 class, which was a new thing for me as I've only ever worked in early childhood settings. There were about 20-22 kids in my class, and even though they were under a fantastic teacher, I really didn't envy her job. There were 10 kids in this class with special needs, including hearing, intellectual, physical, behavioural issues and autism. There were a handful of Indigenous kids and a handful of ESL kids. I couldn't help but wonder how a teacher would cater for SO many diverse needs in her class... so I asked her. This teacher told me that she doesn't have any access to a special needs teacher and therefore needs to write individualised programs to meet the needs of each student. Some students are operating at a grade one level, and others at a grade five level. Anyone reading this who is doing education will no doubt be cringing at the thought of teaching such a range in abilities within the one class. To compensate for the lack of special needs teachers, this class will often have 2/3 teacher aides... which is where I come in. The fact that I am actually being hired as a teacher aide is a great testament to how desperately teacher aides are needed at the moment (especially within special needs education). I have no qualifications other than being almost halfway through my ECE degree.... And all that really means is that I have managed to pass a tonne of namby-pamby humanistic subjects that are of very little practical value. I've had very little experience... other than working at 5 different schools/kindies through various placements. Really the only things that I bring to the job are a willingness to be thrown in the deep end and a love of working with children. Some people would argue that love and eagerness are really all that you need.... ha, those people are nuts. Particularly when it comes to caring for children with special needs, some knowledge of the needs that you are dealing with would certainly be helpful. So all of this got me thinking about the value of inclusive education. Don't worry.... I won't bore you by listing the pro's and con's of inclusive education, although there are certainly convincing arguments for both. And if I had to pick a side, I'd most likely be pro-inclusivity. But despite this, there are definitely some downfalls. An obvious one is the incredible amount of stress that this places on teachers, many of whom have very limited knowledge of special needs. The teacher that I worked with today would love nothing more than some help with the ridiculous amount of programming that she needs to complete for her students. Instead she got a 19 year old ECE student who is keen to learn yet readily admits that she knows nothing at all. Trying to meet the needs of students who differ in every conceivable way is such a huge expectation to place on teachers if it is not met with adequate support. Another obvious downfall is the reality of bullying. We all know that kids can be cruel. Despite how hard teachers work to foster safe and supportive learning environments, gang mentalities are far too common in classrooms. This is highlighted in inclusive classrooms, as ridiculous as that may sound. In this particular class, the Indigenous students would group together, the children with hearing difficulties would group together, the children with autism would group together and there would be a few stragglers with intellectual and physical difficulties who were isolated from the group.... and each little section of the class would fight the others. I spent a good part of today trying to convince the students that giving each other upper-cuts was a bad idea...and nearly got one myself for being so bold. Watching students who are constantly targeted for every kind of bullying simply because they are 'different' is a heartbreaking yet often unavoidable reality of inclusive education. You can't help but wonder what kind of long lasting damage is being done to children who are subjected to this treatment each and every day.
I understand the push for mainstreaming, and agree with various parts of it... but if we are going to care for children with diverse needs, teachers need to be educated and supported. Special needs education is limited at Uni, unless you specialise as a special needs teacher. Particularly with ECE, special needs education should be embedded in every subject that we do, because it's the reality of our job as educators. Teachers need to be given support both in the classroom and with regards to programming... to help with their personal anxiety levels and to ensure that no children are left behind (as Bush would put it).
Well that's my ramble done for tonight... back to the namby-pamby subjects....
Today I have been thinking a lot about the inclusive education movement. As most of you may have guessed that's largely because I've recently started working at the Vincent Early Childhood Development Program as a relief teacher aide. Essentially it's the early childhood facility for really young children with special needs. Although if there is a need for a teacher aide at the Vincent Primary School they will also call me in. Vincent Primary School, as I learnt today, is a fully inclusive school, which means that they mainstream students who would otherwise be placed in special schools. Today I was working with a grade 4/5 class, which was a new thing for me as I've only ever worked in early childhood settings. There were about 20-22 kids in my class, and even though they were under a fantastic teacher, I really didn't envy her job. There were 10 kids in this class with special needs, including hearing, intellectual, physical, behavioural issues and autism. There were a handful of Indigenous kids and a handful of ESL kids. I couldn't help but wonder how a teacher would cater for SO many diverse needs in her class... so I asked her. This teacher told me that she doesn't have any access to a special needs teacher and therefore needs to write individualised programs to meet the needs of each student. Some students are operating at a grade one level, and others at a grade five level. Anyone reading this who is doing education will no doubt be cringing at the thought of teaching such a range in abilities within the one class. To compensate for the lack of special needs teachers, this class will often have 2/3 teacher aides... which is where I come in. The fact that I am actually being hired as a teacher aide is a great testament to how desperately teacher aides are needed at the moment (especially within special needs education). I have no qualifications other than being almost halfway through my ECE degree.... And all that really means is that I have managed to pass a tonne of namby-pamby humanistic subjects that are of very little practical value. I've had very little experience... other than working at 5 different schools/kindies through various placements. Really the only things that I bring to the job are a willingness to be thrown in the deep end and a love of working with children. Some people would argue that love and eagerness are really all that you need.... ha, those people are nuts. Particularly when it comes to caring for children with special needs, some knowledge of the needs that you are dealing with would certainly be helpful. So all of this got me thinking about the value of inclusive education. Don't worry.... I won't bore you by listing the pro's and con's of inclusive education, although there are certainly convincing arguments for both. And if I had to pick a side, I'd most likely be pro-inclusivity. But despite this, there are definitely some downfalls. An obvious one is the incredible amount of stress that this places on teachers, many of whom have very limited knowledge of special needs. The teacher that I worked with today would love nothing more than some help with the ridiculous amount of programming that she needs to complete for her students. Instead she got a 19 year old ECE student who is keen to learn yet readily admits that she knows nothing at all. Trying to meet the needs of students who differ in every conceivable way is such a huge expectation to place on teachers if it is not met with adequate support. Another obvious downfall is the reality of bullying. We all know that kids can be cruel. Despite how hard teachers work to foster safe and supportive learning environments, gang mentalities are far too common in classrooms. This is highlighted in inclusive classrooms, as ridiculous as that may sound. In this particular class, the Indigenous students would group together, the children with hearing difficulties would group together, the children with autism would group together and there would be a few stragglers with intellectual and physical difficulties who were isolated from the group.... and each little section of the class would fight the others. I spent a good part of today trying to convince the students that giving each other upper-cuts was a bad idea...and nearly got one myself for being so bold. Watching students who are constantly targeted for every kind of bullying simply because they are 'different' is a heartbreaking yet often unavoidable reality of inclusive education. You can't help but wonder what kind of long lasting damage is being done to children who are subjected to this treatment each and every day.
I understand the push for mainstreaming, and agree with various parts of it... but if we are going to care for children with diverse needs, teachers need to be educated and supported. Special needs education is limited at Uni, unless you specialise as a special needs teacher. Particularly with ECE, special needs education should be embedded in every subject that we do, because it's the reality of our job as educators. Teachers need to be given support both in the classroom and with regards to programming... to help with their personal anxiety levels and to ensure that no children are left behind (as Bush would put it).
Well that's my ramble done for tonight... back to the namby-pamby subjects....
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