{"id":2439,"date":"2013-07-10T00:56:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T00:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2013-07-11T02:55:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T02:55:13","slug":"the-special-needs-issue-tamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2013\/07\/10\/the-special-needs-issue-tamas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Special Needs Issue – Tamas Lorincz"},"content":{"rendered":"

A First (?) Day — Tamas Lorincz\"tamas\"<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n

I have thought about this day for a long time.\u00a0 I feel my heart beating in my throat; I\u2019m not able to breathe deeply enough.\u00a0 The closed door lies just ahead, and behind it my future.\u00a0 I hear the bell, again and again.\u00a0 I can\u2019t put this off any longer. I have to go through it.<\/p>\n

It was a journey for me to get to this stage.\u00a0 My parents insisted I remain with people like me, to make it easier.\u00a0 But I had greater ambitions.\u00a0 My hopes were high with what I wanted to achieve and the people I wanted to inspire. All this to be abruptly halted, one minute after the bell, by two pathetic inches.<\/p>\n

People turn to look at me and the first impression I have made is the last I had wanted to.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen the other door so he can get through,\u201d they all say to each other, to no one in particular.\u00a0 I wheel myself back a little to give the gathering crowd space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t, the latch is stuck,\u201d says another, as I feel myself disappear into the blackness I have occupied so often throughout my life.<\/p>\n

Another person tries the latch, then a third, before it finally gives and they are able to open both doors so that my wheelchair can pass.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t inspired awe, I have attracted pity.\u00a0 The students look at me with a mixture of curiosity, doubt and a bit of fear. They have no idea what to do with me.<\/p>\n

When did the word \u2018special\u2019 become fraught with so much derision?\u00a0 I am not \u2018special<\/i>.\u2019 I am not \u2018unique<\/i>.\u2019 I do not have special needs<\/i> and I am not \u2018differently abled\u2019<\/i>. I\u2019m just not able to move my legs.<\/p>\n

This…..inconvenience, hindrance, <\/i>even idiosyncrasy<\/i>, will mean, inevitably, that I will have to deal with the humiliation of the door, and others like it, everyday.<\/p>\n

I remember all too clearly the trauma of my last school, where I had to fake sickness before class performances to avoid being carried down the stairs to the auditorium.\u00a0 Where I had to wait until lunchtime to go to the toilet because the only one fitting a wheelchair was near the basketball courts outside.\u00a0 I could go on, and on and on and on, but it gets boring, as you can imagine.<\/p>\n

I wheel myself into the middle of the room.\u00a0 The students clearly have seen nothing like it before. Surely, a teacher isn’t supposed to be in a wheelchair.\u00a0 There\u2019s going to be a lot to get used to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet you\u2019re wondering how you\u2019re going to get me to sit on a whoopee cushion,\u201d I say to the faces staring at me.\u00a0 I wait for laughter.\u00a0 Slowly, it comes.\u00a0 The students lift their eyes from the ground to look at me, seeking my permission to laugh properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA funny teacher!\u201d says a boy in the back of the class, as if he\u2019s just discovered oil. The rest of the class, fortunately for me, agrees. I have plenty more of these at hand, enough to last a year probably.<\/p>\n

So I settle in.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what the rest of the year holds in store. More laughs, I hope. And maybe some of the students may grow to dislike me, to complain about homework and grades, and realise that I am not so special.\u00a0 Quite normal, actually.<\/p>\n

I dedicate this post to every teacher who overcomes their own personal obstacles to bring the joy of learning to classrooms around the world. I wish there were more of you to teach us all. For further insight you might wish to read Dorothy Lepkowska\u2019s November 12th<\/sup>, 2012 article from the Guardian, <\/i>Where Are The Disabled Teachers?<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Connect with \u00a0Tamas, Chuck, Scott, \u00a0Vladimira, Nour, \u00a0Ann and other iTDi Associates, Mentors, and Faculty by joining iTDi Community.\u00a0Sign Up For A Free iTDi Account<\/a>\u00a0to create your profile and get immediate access to our social forums and trial lessons from our\u00a0English For Teachers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Teacher Development<\/a>\u00a0courses.<\/p>\n

Like what we do? Become an\u00a0iTDi Patron<\/a>.
\nYour support makes a difference.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A First (?) Day — Tamas Lorincz I have thought about this day for a long time.\u00a0 I feel my heart beating in my throat; I\u2019m not able to breathe deeply enough.\u00a0 The closed door lies just ahead, and behind it my future.\u00a0 I hear the bell, again and again.\u00a0 I can\u2019t put this off … Continue reading The Special Needs Issue – Tamas Lorincz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-needs","category-summer-sampler-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}