Aaaaand I Posted Again

I'm in a class about adapting classrooms for special needs. I absolutely love it. My professor is completely deaf and signs the entire class using a translator. At first I considered dropping because I thought it would be a distraction but I'm so glad I didn't. He is an absolutely amazing instructor. I'm a little embarrassed to say I've choked up in his class once or twice. He's always doing something to open our eyes to disabilities. Whether it's not wearing our glasses for a whole class and trying to take notes- seriously, it was hilarious. Or showing us how deaf people sign music. At the end of every lecture he always kind of steps back and talks about the disability or specific person we've been discussing. He never talks about what they're unable to do, but rather what they add or are capable of. I've learned one thing through it all and it's going to sound really cliche, but that's ok. Everyone has something to offer. Before my cheesiness over takes you and causes you to close the page, just keep reading.

In the classroom I'm the kind of teacher that instantly likes the underdog. Some of my classmates like the all-star and some like the brown noser, and thats fine, but I like the struggling kid the most. Maybe it's some deep desire to change their lives from watching way too many sappy education movies, but I can't help but feel like they're being underestimated. Today I was watching a video for my class and it was just wonderful. In it, a famous author, Sir Ken Robinson, discusses creativity and how schools cause us to lose our creativity. At one point he talks about his book, "Epiphany", in which he asks people when they realized their talents. Being the one who wants to find that students secret "thing", this was instantly interesting. He talked about a woman named Gillian Lynne. Gillian Lynne was fidgety and distracting in class and couldn't seem to focus. One day her mother was called in by the school and told that Gillian might have a learning disability. Eventually Gillian was taken to a specialist. He watched her, making her sit on her hands for twenty minutes, then asked to see her mother alone. He turned on some music and they found that Gillian instantly started to move to the music. He turned to her mother and said, "Gillian isn't sick; she's a dancer. Take her a dance school."

Gillian would go on to dance school, become a soloist for the Royal Ballet, and eventually choreograph musicals such as Cats and Phantom of the Opera. She became a multimillionaire all because someone realized what she was capable of rather than what she wasn't.

This may be an extreme example, but I can't help thinking how often myself and other people underestimate themselves because they don't fit the mould. I thoroughly believe that every person has something they can bring to the table that no one else can.

Oh, and P.S. here's the video.