Step Nine

Jun 22, 2007 14:59

 
Have you ever had the feeling that you're doing what you're really called to do?

I'm pretty sure people think I'm insane, but working with students with special needs-especially the profound/severe cases-is amazing to me. Sure, it's probably the most stressful thing I've ever done, most of the time it's not rewarding, and you're never quite sure if you're getting through to them.

...Until you see one of the more affected students look directly at you and announce "Yukimura-sensei."

It was garbled, and difficult to decipher, but it was there. And it's put me on quite a high.

It turns out that my tennis training is going to help out, too.  Some of the students have hand-eye coordination problems, and they need exercise, too. I took a couple of the higher-functioning ones out to their school court and worked with them on the very basics-holding the racquet, swinging, tossing the ball.  The kids loved it (a few balls even got over the net!), and those two were fairly quiet for the rest of the afternoon-their teacher promised that if they behaved for the next week, I would take them out again next Friday. 
I'm not looking at the future stars of tennis here, but it's fun for them and for me. These kids can't spend their entire lives in the classroom.

On that note, I'm ready for some hard practice.  I might be running extra laps just because I feel like it today.

tennis, special education

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