MAKING A DIFFERENCE

When I first began teaching I would attend professional development activities and inevitably you would be asked to write down why you were a teacher. Or to put it another way, what was your philosophy of teaching. You were usually given half an hour or so to do this at the start of the day..... which was coincidentally, convenient because it gave the presenter half an hour to get organised. You would sit there for half an hour trying to think of some answer so you could appear brilliant if called upon to read it out. I would wonder whether I was game enough to tell them I finished school and didn't know what to do when someone suggested teaching and mentioned you could get a scholarship to go to university. I would look around and see how the serious people were furiously filling their papers with their views on 'truth, justice and the department of education way'. Then I would revert to doodling or drawing cartoons. See I was keen, very keen but I just didn't have a philosophical vision or a star to steer myself by. I expected to develop this as I learnt my trade.

I began as a History and Special Education teacher. 'Special Education'! This was because I didn't want to teach English. My first practical session was at a high school in Sydney. I taught some History and hang around with the Special Education class. The star pupil was Stephen. He was 14 years old and had not spoken until he was about 9. The high school had a program where he would take messages around the school and this would encourage him to interact with staff and students. This program had been running for over a year so when Stephen appeared at the staffroom door with a note I opened it and read:

This note is of no consequence whatsoever. Just sign the bloody thing and send Stephen on his way.

During the two weeks I was there the class were learning how to cook peas and eat them. They had been doing this for nearly a term. They had coloured-in stencils of peas, grown peas, written stories about peas, and even made little felt pencil cases which looked like a pea pod.... complete with smiling little peas inside when you opened the zipper. During one lesson they had discussed how to cook peas and they had written out the method and had a look at the equipment needed. Now was the big day. A double lesson in which they got to cook and eat their peas. I had a history class during the first period and so at the break went down to the kitchen. Most of the kids were sitting eating their peas. But Stephen was in the corner huddled over the sink. I went over to him and found he was stuffing peas down the plug. "No, Stephen" I said "You are allowed to eat them". He paused long enough to turn and tell me in no uncertain terms "I don't even like spinach".

But Stephen was an expert in other things. He probably knew more about dinosaurs then all the teachers there put together. He could pronounce the names of dinosaurs that we had never heard of. He could tell you when they lived, what they ate, what size they were and how much they weighed. He was so good that the teachers would get him to give a talk to the year 7 classes when they were studying dinosaurs. This also built up Stephen's confidence.

Teaching Special Education taught me a lot. A lot which shaped the way I taught and also transferred over into mainstream classes. It also shaped my 'philosophy' of why I teach. It can best be summed up by a story I once heard:

A famous American writer/philosopher was walking along a huge beach and there were millions of star fish washed up on the beach by a storm. As he walked along he saw a young man pick up a star fish and throw it back into the ocean. He watched for a while as the man picked up another and threw it into the ocean also. He walked up to the man and said "there are millions of them you can't make a difference". The young man paused, but then bent down, pick up another and walked to the water's edge and threw it into the ocean. He came back to the writer and said "it made a difference to that one".

I have already mentioned the Everest Children's Home in Nepal where my daughter, Amanda and I were doing volunteer work. When I returned home she stayed and did an extra month with the kids. In Nepal she spent all the money she possessed on the kids, including hiring them a tutor to try bring their grades up at school. She has also been trying to raise the money to send all of the children to private school as this will help them get a better start in life (there is a big difference in a government and a private school in Nepal). It cost so little to send these kids to school, around $400 a year per child. Amanda has done a fantastic job and there are only 6 kids left to find money for. Of course this won't solve the orphan problem in Nepal....but like the starfish.....it will make a difference to them. The pictures on this post are the children from the Everest Children's Home.