When I’m not writing about stuff, I help teachers, teach. Uh-oh! So now that part of me is out of the closet on this blog. Yikes!
Prior to admitting that I teach teachers, (I did teach kids for 30 years first) I outed myself in this blog for being:
- a fake foodie
- a pear-shaped clothing shopper
- an inept cook, social media user, hiker, dieter, etc. etc. blah blah.
Then I outed myself as a gephyrophobic. That’s a fancy word for a person who is afraid of being or driving on a bridge. I prefer to use my own made-up word, Brobic.
From my background as a phobic, I was hooked by The NY Times Article, “Terror Conquered, the Water’s Fine.” Written by N. R. Kleinfield, the article’s tag was “A New Yorker Faces His Phobia, One Stroke at a Time.” It was about a 33 year old guy, Attis Clopton, who was afraid of swimming. After suffering with his aquaphobia for years, Attis signed up for swimming lessons.
As I read his story, I forgot that I was originally hooked by the phobia angle. I was caught up in the methods, an old teacher word, that teacher, Lori Pailet, used to help Attis learn to swim and overcome his fear.
The story showed a teacher at work, a damn fine teacher. Most teachers I know are damn fine teachers too. Some of you will look at the article and say the man in this story was “ready to learn,” and that’s why it worked. I don’t know.
I do know that we, teachers get all kinds of kids. Some of those kids are “ready to learn,” and some of them are not. Good teachers do their very best to reach them all. Hats off to Lori Pailet, and to all great teachers!
Here’s the link to the story: http://nyti.ms/1pPOPYU
The Nothing Expert 