Robert P. Echter
No treatment of this topic would do it justice without reference to
Teaching As A Performing Art
(Sarason, 1999). Last year I referred to it as the best book on education I have ever read. I'm under pressure here to get a paper done, not perform a work of art. The root meaning of "consent" is to feel, think, judge together. Most people don't think of teaching as showering with humanity, but I do. We are in a field as wide and diverse as human evolution. It is life as much as anything else we do. If there is one thing that a special class teacher can count on is life in these classrooms is unpredictable and one has to prepare to respond to and exploit it for personal-interpersonal educational reasons. Teachers will say humorously how much they resent the 'page 72 syndrome' ("by October 16 you will be on page 72"). That way of thinking about curriculum, learning and relationships in the special class is self-defeating in the extreme.
In more than a handful of students there is or is thought to be some kind of brain dysfunction. Here again one cannot make that the major focus in how one thinks about and responds to a child. My job is in a sense to test the hypothesis by trying to determine what that child can or cannot do and then figure out ways whereby that can be compensated for. It is also important to establish some sound social connection with and among our students because they often do not normally find it elsewhere in school.
Gattegno, for instance consistently taught students skills way beyond those taught in most regular classes. He taught in a way they found intrinsically enjoyable and he was constantly seeking ways to reduce the costs to rote memorization.
I was in a hall near my classroom and a teacher was being critical of my teaching. Saying essentially that I was not demanding or critical enough of my students. I pointed out that if you only see in conventional terms all you can see are conventional things. You are blind to the obvious. If you let intelligence in the obvious can appear there. I added that my cohorts and I had won all kinds of awards and accolades from parents, students, local, state, national and international organizations. There are plenty of teachers who see and feel and think as I do, but we are not organized along these lines.
I saw a very pretty woman in the market. It was of no consequence to me that she had a clubfoot and other slight, but evident physical deformities. She was extremely touching to look at in nothing other than an attractive way. Does it make any sense to view our students with less regard for their assets and who they are? She made a mark on my life without ever saying a word. Likewise, teachers have a very important impact on the lives of their students one way or another