Last year I was injured in an accident; I am fortunate that I am fine. But that experience brought me a new appreciation for disabled people who continue to work, as these inspirational teachers did.
Edutopia highlights several disabled educators who have been working successfully in the classroom: Amanda Trei and Tricia Downing, who are paraplegic; Gary LeGates, who is blind; and Wendy Shugol, who has cerebral palsy.
Trei and Shugol work with K-12 special education students, and each has discovered unique ways of interacting with their students. For example, Trei turns student questions about her disability into lessons on finding alternate ways to do things. Shugol says she’s tough on her students because she knows what skills they will need to cope in the real world.
“I really don't stop to think about my disability very much. I've never looked at myself as a role model for my students. But a number of them have said they knew if I could do it, they could do it.”
Tricia Downing, a high school internship coordinator, is also a competitive bicyclist. In fact she was the first paraplegic woman to compete in an Iron Man--distance triathlon. “Sometimes, students get stuck in their teenage world, where everything's a crisis,” she says. “I've been able to get across to students that the world is bigger than their problems. My message is that life is full of challenges, but if you're willing to try to overcome them, you can find the resources within yourself.”
Gary LeGates recently retired after 30 years of teaching high school Latin and French. He had some interesting challenges as a blind teacher, such as cheating, that he handled by recruiting hall monitors and community volunteers to watch students during tests. Despite the challenges, he won over his students. One student told him, “You don’t look at what we look like; you look at the heart.” Principal John Seaman talked about the example LeGates set—of hard work, perseverance, and scholarship. “I'm convinced that our students have gained an understanding that having an obvious handicap does not preclude someone from being a professional and an intellectual.”
I know I’m stating the obvious when I say that it’s these teachers’ abilities that set them apart, not their disabilities.
That was one of the best articles i ever read.
I am a pedagogy student of Perú and it was an honor to me sharing that kind of experiences. I think inclusión is not only for students. Inclsuión is for all the people that is acting in the school.
Thanks!