Inspiration is Any Where You Want it to Be

I’ll admit that I am strangely intrigued by ghosts. I watch every supernatural, ghost hunting show I can find. But recently, I found one that has taught me something about teaching- I can and do find educational opportunity in the strangest places!
I was at the library and came across a DVD of a show called Psychic Kids. Basically, the show is about parents who contact a famous psychic/medium and his psychologist associate because their child claims to be seeing ghosts or having some experiences of a paranormal nature that has been affecting every part of their life and their family’s life and they don’t know where else to turn for help.
Each show takes three families who are in a somewhat geographically similar area, and has them meet at a central location, which also happens to be a “paranormally active” location, for a weekend retreat. The psychologist works with the parents and the kids to help sort out their frustrations and fears and the psychic helps the kids learn how to deal with their sixth sense and confront their fears. All the while, the children are encouraged to form a bond so that they can develop relationships with other kids their age who understand them, since bullying is often a problem for these children among their peers.
I used to think that being a parent instanty made you a good teacher, something that concerned me because I am not yet a parent. But when I watch the parents in this show, confused about what their child is experiencing, frustrated about their inability to “make it better” and desperate for any help they can get, I realize that being a parent and being a teacher are two different things. While they may contribute to some areas of the other, they are essentially different entities.
In this show, the psychic (who can be compared to a teacher) has the unique challenge of setting the children free to explore their sixth sense (new knowledge) in an environment which provides them ample opportunity to interact with their psychic ability (the classroom). The children (students) sometimes let their fear and anxieties take over and they become terrified and want to run (refusal to learn, behavior management problems). The psychic (like the teacher) realizes that the parents, being emotionally attached, may comfort the child rather than give them the push they need to confront their fears and anxieties and move past them and that he/she needs to take on a stricter role which empowers the child rather than removes responsibility.
But most important of all is validation. On the show, once the child moves through their fear, the psychic validates that fear but express pride in their ability to move past it and builds their confidence by focusing on their accomplishment of moving past the fear (reward through positive reinforcement). He always does this with the parents present, which makes the child feel more validated and more confident (having the student present for parent-teacher conferences).
So in a nutshell, what I learned is that as a teacher, I need to remain somewhat emotionally detached so that I can do the difficult job of being tough enough to challenge students to move past their fears and discover their potential. After they complete the challenging task, I need to validate the original fear and follow it up with recognition of accomplishment to make the child realize that some things in life will require that we push ourselves further than we think we can go, but that the rewards are lasting and worthwhile.
I also learned a little something about dealing with parents. On one of the episodes, the parent of one of these children held very strong religious beliefs that conflicted with what the psychic does and caused him serious concerns over whether he could help the child the only way he knows how with out disrespecting her mother’s beliefs. It reminded me that I will likely face parents of different belief systems than myself. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to be the more flexible person, the more open minded person. I have to be prepared to work within the comfort zones of those parents whose cultural beliefs may differ from mine, regardless of what my personal feeling is about that, my professional responsibility is to educate myself on their beliefs and teach that child within those beliefs to the best of my ability.
So there you have it! I have turned my guilty pleasure of watching ghost stories into a rich, educational experience. I no longer have to feel bad about indulging in it (when I probably should be working on homework instead!)