Dear Paul
This moved me deeply, it reminded me of so many people and circumstances of
my own life. When you concluded with the part about the 'Reservoir of
talent that could be tapped into' I realized evenly more strongly how wrong
are the labels that are attached to people and how powerful can be the
symbolizm of words, especially when we take the trouble to listen.
Kindest
Gerald
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Carney <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 11 July 2001 16:44
Subject: 'Special Needs'?
>Dear list
>
>I thought that I would share the following story as it seemed
>appropriate.
>
>My daughter was recently working as a teacher in a small village
>school . One evening when she arrived home she told me of a
>child in her class who had been labelled as having 'emotional,
>behavioural disturbance' with 'learning difficulty'. In order to
>help him he has the support of a 'special needs teacher' once a
>week.
>
>My daughter said that his English book is filled with 'crosses'
>with few (if any) 'ticks' in it. It seems that on this day
>his'special needs' teacher decided to 'do some poetry' with him
>and asked him to write a poem - my daughter told me that what he
>wrote was:
>
> Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday
> Sadness, sadness, sadness
> Today, today, today
> Hope, hope hope
> Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow
> Love, love, love
>
>The teacher commented positively on it, saying how beautiful it
>was and asked him where he had got the inspiration for it. His
>reply was -- "My spelling corrections Miss."
>
>As many might do my initial response was to laugh with the boy,
>but then I tought of the poignancy of it and what deeper meaning
>the words had for the child -- and also that here was a child
>labelled with two labels neither of which seemed that
>appropriate if only, perhaps, the reservoir of talent that
>seemed to be there could be 'tapped' into.
>
>
>
>=====
>Best wishes
>
>Paul
>
>____________________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk
>or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie
|