One last tales from the trenches: substitute teacher in a kilt

[Alan H]

This one is going to break your heart.

This past Tuesday I went to school, knowing that I was scheduled in a learning disabled room. Now, I've done a LOT of learning disabled classes. they're usually a guided study-hall environment, a place where kids who have problems concentrating or have short attention spans or have mild learning impairment can go and get their homework done with an adult or two around to help them out. Often there are student tutors there as well. So that's what I thought I was getting into.

NOT.

This was a severely emotionally handicapped classroom. It's a day-school lockdown environement, you'll see why it's lock-down, later.

I walked in and realized this was something different when the guy who opened the door for me introduced himself as the County behavioral psychiatrist. Two more adults, and these were big guys, showed up. I noticed that in addition to two classrooms, there were a couple of "quiet" rooms, two "counseling" rooms with soft furniture. The staff offices were behind soundproof doors.....with windows.....so that the staff could talk about the kids while seeing them, but the kids couldn't hear what they were saying. The complex had it's own bathroom. It had it's own kitchen.

When the first student arrives, I thought he was very autistic from his body language and in how he'd stare at me over and over again...I was "New" you see? We had two "crack babies" in there, and one "alcohol baby". I learned this at the end of the day from the District Occupational Therapist.

The kids arrive and get breakfast. They get lunch as well, because the truth is that if they don't eat something worthwhile at school, it's likely that they won't eat anything worthwhile at ALL, all day long. While I was there I heard one kid tell the OT that the reason he'd gotten so upset during their college visit the previous day was because his he and his dad had gotten in a fight that night, and his dad had left. He was glad his dad had left, because last time he'd been there, he'd beaten up the kid....but yet this kid was worried about his dad; was worried that he was out drinking and would come home nad hurt his mother, or get hurt himself. Later on, this kids mother came in for a conference with the District Pyschologist. I think she hadn't combed her hair in a month, and she certainly hadn't bathed in a week or two....but at least SHE CAME IN. The father did not.

I broke up a fight while I was in there...second time I've done that in a month.

During the assigned reading time (twenty minutes every day) I took a chance and I printed off copies of two of my poems and handed them out. I told thekids to read them and then if they wanted to, write one of their own on the back. You'd have just DIED....

One kids wrote about how much he loved his mother, she was always there for him, no matter what happened or how much trouble he got in. Another one wrote about how she loved her horse and how sad she was that he had died this past year.

I about lost it when another kid with a serious disorder and need for attention told her that her horse should be cut up and eaten...that's all horses were good for. But you have to understand, that kid was one of the crack babies. That was a horrible thing to say, but his values and brain is scrambled from the white dust that his mother snorted while she was pregnant, and by God-Knows_What is going on at home, right now.

Two kids got out....it happens once in a while, and the next thing we knew we had the Sherriff in the classroom because they'd verbally abused a teacher and had thrown another ("normal") kid against a steel post int he hallway and split his head open.

You get the picture? THAT is where I spent my Tuesday.

But you know what happened, to the utter astonishment of the Psychologist and the two aides and the OT? I took twenty minutes to talk about my kilts.

I told them about the history of the kilt, and that MEN wore kilts, and I told them about the tartans, and that the thing around my waist was a sporran. I showed them that my wallet and my cell phone was in my sporran. I told them about the Gaelic language and what a sgian dubh was. I told them about my clan: MacNaughton.

One kid asked about my kilt pin, and I pointed out that if you looked at it closely, it was a knot that had no beginning and no ending. I pointed out that it was a lot like my belt......

and I told them that the knot, in Celtic lore, signified how all people were entwined with one another. I told them that the knot represented how people were tied to the Earth and the world around us. I told them that the knot was a way to show that we are all brothers and sisters, and that when I wore a kilt...

....I stood like a man, and I treated people with respect.

They got it. I told them that when I wear a Celtic knot, it's my way of telling them....and I gripped don black kids hand, one of the ones in the fight that I broke up.....that MEN wore kilts, and MEN treated each other with RESPECT, and that I RESPECTED them, and if they respected each other and treated each other like MEN....

...then we were brothers.

And you know what happened? They listened. They asked questions. They didn't tune me out, like they tried to tune almost everything else out, all day long. Every single kid in that room paid attention, listened, asked questions, learned where the UK is on the map and agreed that we were all brothers and sisters.

The staff was open-mouthed. NEVER...NEVER did the entire class act like that. Kids who NEVER asked questions, asked questions. Kids who tuned out EVERYTHING, now knew where England, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are.

WHY?

.....because someone talked to them with respect, and that someone wore a KILT. Two boys want kilts, now, and if they still want them when I go back to that classroom, I personally will BUY THEM kilts with my own money.

Without the kilt on, I'd be just another substitute in that classroom. With a kilt on, I got their attention and for at least twenty minutes of their day, those kids learned something, and we were all equals.

The Kilt teaches. It opens doors. It makes a difference.

Wear it with Pride.

[Yaish]

Alan, you're a hero. I know you have to feel like the little dutch boy with his finger in the dike sometimes, but you're a hero.

Thank you for doing what you do with those children.

[switchblade5984]

those were the only teachers i liked.....

the ones that treated students like we mattered and like adults

im glad there are people out there like you Alan!

[Oatmeal Savage]

Alan, what Yaish said, It is wonderful to read of your experiences. You prove that individuals do and can make a difference. I, for one, hope this isn't the last story from the Kilted Teacher.

Thanks
Kevin

[Big Dave]

Alan, you're a hero. I know you have to feel like the little dutch boy with his finger in the dike sometimes, but your a hero.

Thank you for doing what you do with those children.

That's my thought aswell. Alan, the situation you are in breaks my heart, but how you treated makes you a Hero.

[RCallan]

See...
Teachers can change a kids life....

Our kilted brother changed an entire classroom's life...

Good job!

[The Supreme Canuck]

Alan: Well done, friend. Just well done.

[Kelson]

Alan, you probably love serving as a subsitute, but it really seems such a lose that the district can't use you in a capacity to help other teachers to relate to their students in the way you do. But I suspect what you do comes from the soul and I'm not sure that can be taught. Even if you were able to, how can a teacher be successful when confronted with a classroom bursting at the seams with some students sitting on the floor.

[Alan H]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm a one-day hero. I'm the substitute wonder. I can plant a seed or two in some kids minds on ONE DAY, and contribute something to the garden of their lives.

You now who the REAL Heroes are?

They're that District Psychologist and that OT that walk into that classroom EVERY DAY, and day in and day out make a difference in those kids lives. I stepped in for one day and I made LITTLE differnce.

That OT, and she's a very pretty, slender Hispanic woman that half the kids in that class could take apart if they wanted to, but you could SEE that they adored her..... SHE is the day-in and day-out hero. The district psychologist is the hero.

The teachers that try, and believe me it ain't easy, to teach those ESL classes....they're the heroes. The ones that get in there day after day after day with kids that couldn't give a s**t about learning and try, try, try to change their iives.....

THEY are the heroes. If I"ve learned one thing about our school system through these past two months, it's been that the overwhelming majority of teachers CARE. They may be pushed too hard and they may be burnt out from having to deal with a million kids that couldn't care less about school, learning or their future, but give them one glimpse of ONE KID that they can make a difference with, and they'll be all over it.

I will tell you about Senora Vera, and how she talks to her Hispanic students, tellling them, begging them to change their lives. I've subbed in her class three times now. She was initially horrified that I'd brought Octavio Paz poetry into her class....that was fourth year Spanish, and I'd made her second-years look at it? But she understood when I said that I knew the kids couldn't really translate it well. I knew that.

But now kids who might never know about Octavio Paz knew that a man in Mexico...a MEXICAN man was valued for the words he wrote and the thoughts he put down on paper, not just for how many goals he scored in a soccer game, and that ONE lesson was worth the time we spent on it....

I can't teach them Spanish, but I CAN help teach them something to be proud of, something that shows them a different way..

Senora Vera hugged me the other day, after I told her that. It was totally inappropriate in a professional setting. So,what.... I'm gonna go squeal to the principal? Senora Vera cares about her kids, she cares about her people and their culture. She cares about their future here int he USA.

SHE........... is the hero, and there are a million of them out there.

[Cawdorian]

Alan,

You are to be commended, teaching special education is a very challenging but rewarding task. One of my daughters-in law has taught special education for years, I am aware the challenges she has faced. You made a difference in the lives of those children, they won't forget you.