educating peter
ever thought how your belief about a person shapes your behaviour towards them? how your thoughts translate into your action, and the person responses to your expectations and behaviour?
that's what i loved about educating peter. (you can watch it on youtube)
as part of a federal law in america, kids with down's syndrome were integrated into mainstream schools. filmed in 1992, the 30-min documentary follows a third grade boy called peter, who has down's syndrome and his experience throughout the year.
initially, his teacher was uncertain of how to handle the situation- she had never taught children with down's syndrome. the children found him different (his glasses, looks, clothes); and peter was making weird noises in class. over time, children grew scared of him; he would hit the kids, lick them, among other actions.
his teacher stepped in, and had all the kids sit down and discussed the reasons why peter was hitting people. the kids felt that peter was seeking attention, and they came up with a solution themselves to include peter in their activities. the girls took on the caring, motherly role to teach peter and helped him to catch up with the classes. peter started being a part of the class, made many good friends with the rest of the kids.
then his teacher's expectations of him were raised. from "i'm not sure of what to expect from you, peter", it changed to "now i know you can do it" and she began to teach him stuff that the rest of the class were learning. peter found it hard to learn to read, but he made it with the support of his encouraging classmates.
there was this scene where they had a sports day, and i loved it. the kids were chanting "let's go peter let's go!", and peter was enjoying his participation in the activity.
i was touched by the scene, at how much the kids accepted him as a part of them, a part of their class.
i was very impressed at the level of maturity of the kids. kudos to them for coming up with a solution to help integrate peter into their class. and as one of them aptly puts it, "it was peter who taught us" - even though it seems like they were helping peter, they learnt something from him, to think positive and to problem solve.
i was amazed by their teacher as well. she managed to make the kids think critically and sit together and come up with a method to help peter fit in- they took ownership of tackling the situation. the kids looked at the situation from peter's point of view; they rationalized that peter did all those actions which were intended to gain attention from the rest of the class.
rather than let discrimination kick in, and draw the boundaries between down's syndrome and the definition of normality and what's not, they addressed the issue.
their very success is something that makes you wonder, are our perceptions the limiting factor in the way we deal with people, situations and life?
the teacher could've just gone about doing her own work, finished her basic duty as making sure that the kids got their grades, moved on to the next grade.
instead, she gave the kids the chance to talk and analyze the situation themselves. what sets her apart as an outstanding teacher, is her ability to enable the kids to learn something outside the textbooks, they learnt their spelling for sure, but for that year, the kids picked up a life lesson. that's what i call, going beyond the call of duty (for the teacher).
the teacher demonstrated the knack of being able to teach or even to lead the students to focus on actively working on the problem rather than to sit on it and let the misunderstandings grow. that's what learning is about.
this story of peter illustrates the beauty of thinking positively, having high expectations of others, and learning leadership sets great leaders apart from good leaders.
a beautiful year with such a wonderful teacher (how i wish i was in her class), whose 'learning' leadership style gave students the opportunity to learn something new; something that they never expected to learn from school.
how do you view the world with your lenses?
that's what i loved about educating peter. (you can watch it on youtube)
as part of a federal law in america, kids with down's syndrome were integrated into mainstream schools. filmed in 1992, the 30-min documentary follows a third grade boy called peter, who has down's syndrome and his experience throughout the year.
initially, his teacher was uncertain of how to handle the situation- she had never taught children with down's syndrome. the children found him different (his glasses, looks, clothes); and peter was making weird noises in class. over time, children grew scared of him; he would hit the kids, lick them, among other actions.
his teacher stepped in, and had all the kids sit down and discussed the reasons why peter was hitting people. the kids felt that peter was seeking attention, and they came up with a solution themselves to include peter in their activities. the girls took on the caring, motherly role to teach peter and helped him to catch up with the classes. peter started being a part of the class, made many good friends with the rest of the kids.
then his teacher's expectations of him were raised. from "i'm not sure of what to expect from you, peter", it changed to "now i know you can do it" and she began to teach him stuff that the rest of the class were learning. peter found it hard to learn to read, but he made it with the support of his encouraging classmates.
there was this scene where they had a sports day, and i loved it. the kids were chanting "let's go peter let's go!", and peter was enjoying his participation in the activity.
i was touched by the scene, at how much the kids accepted him as a part of them, a part of their class.
i was very impressed at the level of maturity of the kids. kudos to them for coming up with a solution to help integrate peter into their class. and as one of them aptly puts it, "it was peter who taught us" - even though it seems like they were helping peter, they learnt something from him, to think positive and to problem solve.
i was amazed by their teacher as well. she managed to make the kids think critically and sit together and come up with a method to help peter fit in- they took ownership of tackling the situation. the kids looked at the situation from peter's point of view; they rationalized that peter did all those actions which were intended to gain attention from the rest of the class.
rather than let discrimination kick in, and draw the boundaries between down's syndrome and the definition of normality and what's not, they addressed the issue.
their very success is something that makes you wonder, are our perceptions the limiting factor in the way we deal with people, situations and life?
the teacher could've just gone about doing her own work, finished her basic duty as making sure that the kids got their grades, moved on to the next grade.
instead, she gave the kids the chance to talk and analyze the situation themselves. what sets her apart as an outstanding teacher, is her ability to enable the kids to learn something outside the textbooks, they learnt their spelling for sure, but for that year, the kids picked up a life lesson. that's what i call, going beyond the call of duty (for the teacher).
the teacher demonstrated the knack of being able to teach or even to lead the students to focus on actively working on the problem rather than to sit on it and let the misunderstandings grow. that's what learning is about.
this story of peter illustrates the beauty of thinking positively, having high expectations of others, and learning leadership sets great leaders apart from good leaders.
a beautiful year with such a wonderful teacher (how i wish i was in her class), whose 'learning' leadership style gave students the opportunity to learn something new; something that they never expected to learn from school.
how do you view the world with your lenses?
