Edu-pists

To all you teachers out there it may seem strange for me to de-virginize my blog about teaching with such a strange medley title. "What is an edu-pist" you may ask yourself? My response is this:

At the beginning of the week I was approached by one of my students who was struggling with some very big emotional challenges. This student confided in me about something very personal and very serious. As this was happening, I began to feel my skills as an educator, my years of schooling in curriculum and assessment, vanish and I felt the need for something else to fill this void. I started to hear the words of my couples counsellor race through my head. "Reflect back", "Validate a person's feeling", "Summarize", "Ask open ended questions". I began channeling my partner, a Psy.D. student. Remembering snippets of stories about sessions and what worked well and what failed miserably. This slide show of strategies flashed rapidly through my brain, and all the while my face remained calm and collected. I just want to know...how the hell did I manage to do it?

In the world of education we get exactly zero training in how to deal with the social emotional problems our students bring to school. I am speaking specifically about the techniques and skills that come in handy when students require more than some positive reinforcement and a behavioral goal. How many student have you worked with who required outside resources? This is what social workers are trained to do. How many students have you worked with who had some family issues that needed to be aired? This is what counsellors are trained to do.

My intention should not be misconstrued. I do not want teachers to feel that I am making some grand statement about how over worked we are and about how the other professionals are not doing their part. I will save that rant for another time. Until the day someone invents a robot that can be programmed to do the job of a teacher, social worker, and therapists we are left to deal with the way things are. The point I am trying to make is that we Educators often find ourselves in situations that we are unprepared for. All students have an Educator and not all students have social workers or therapists. My soap box is this: Educators deserve the dignity of some basic training in therapeutic competencies, so that we may act competently and appropriately when situations arise. Just my little request for reform of the teacher education system, nothing earth shattering.