Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Philosophical Inquiry: It doesnt matter what you do for a living. I want to know what
you ache for, and if you dream of meeting your hearts longing.
Bishop T.D. Jates
The professor demonstrated inclusive education today during seminar in a very creative
way. She wrote out the many types of children one can encounter in their classroom on cue
cards. She then wrote out the different attributes that these types of children can have. One may
overlook these unique attributes because he/she is too focussed on labeling the child. A
problematic child is only as problematic as you view them. Say for example, instead of
focussing on the fact that the child has grown up in foster care, one can choose to see that
because the child grew up in foster care, he/she is very understanding towards others. This made
me become more aware of my own judgements towards the people around me. Often, I will pass
judgement onto someone who I barely even know. Perhaps this is due to the influence of
judgement from social media or from trained habits, I am not sure. However, after this exercise,
I began to practice readjusting my own judgements. How can I judge someone without even
understanding their circumstances? I then began to realize that teachers have a responsibility to
Rachel Li
be open-minded to the different types of children that they teach. Furthermore, they have a
responsibility to respect these differences and treat these children as they are unique and special.
If I can adjust my own personal judgements, how can I also teach my students to readjust their
After reading the Image of Child article, I noticed my personal image of the child. It
was especially apparent during our ELL gingerbread baking time that I noticed that I viewed the
child as someone who always needed my help. Once I remembered what I had read in the article,
I made a conscious decision to step back. At first, I wanted to roll all the dough out for the
children so that they would be the perfect thickness all the way through, but then I realized that
the children are completely capable of rolling their own dough. What if it isnt perfect? What is
theyre not all the same thickness? I began to tell myself that its okay! As adults, we need to
learn to let go of our constant desire to help a child when they can perform the task at hand on
their own. In fact, our constant help does no good in fostering a child who is independent.
Instead, we end up having children who are reluctant to perform tasks on their own. How can we
as teachers ensure that we facilitate a learning environment in which independence is valued and
fostered? I think that my personal image of the child has a lot to do with how I was raised. My
father still sees me as a little child who is incapable of managing her own affairs. When I am
home, he still finds the need to be my alarm clock! However, after moving out of the house for
university and travelling abroad, I proved to my father that I am an adult who is more than