Let's just suppose it was hard for us...

A couple of things have me thinking about this idea of role reversal and it's impact on teaching. I attended a very good day of professional development last week (you don't hear that often!), and came away considering how to know when the kids just aren't getting it. Also, I've been reading my son's posts about his teaching and his reflection on how it's going.

One of the hardest things for teachers to do is relate to the struggling student, be those struggles with curriculum, discipline, or social. Most teachers were successful in school, usually in all three, that's one big reason why they enjoyed it and wanted to be teachers. For instance, personally I have real trouble with kids who complain that they hate to read. That's totally foreign to me, I have always loved reading. It's hard to reach those kids, although I try, when I can't really be where they're coming from.

So what I was supposing was, what if a teacher took a class in something they knew nothing about, something they would have some trouble with, a different area of interest for them. Would this lead to more awareness of what it's like to struggle? Would it lift the veil from our eyes to see our students' struggles more clearly, more sympathetically?

Time is always the issue, however, it might be worth trying.