While I was in the hospital I discovered that I liked working with children. There were lit-
tle kids in the hospital in wheelchairs who were being taught to walk. I was always amazed
as they wheeled up and down the hallways laughing. Being in a wheelchair was the normal
thing for them. They would cry every time adults made them get out of their chairs. I real-
ized the medical staff did not really understand the way the children felt, so I tried to help
them learn to walk by coaxing them out of their wheelchairs.
When I started at a 4-year college, I met a history teacher who kept asking questions and
he got me to think about things I had never considered before. I finished an economics de-
gree, rejected the idea of working on Wall Street and thought I might want to become a col-
lege professor. A friend reminded me how much I liked working with children and I made a
spur-of-the-moment decision to enter a graduate program in teacher education.
I know I am disabled, that I am handicapped, and my solution is to overcompensate. I will
not ask for any special consideration at work because I do not want people to think I cannot
do the job. I will not let the wheelchair be an excuse for me. The day I went to take the
teacher certification test there was an ice storm, the sidewalks were not cleared, and I could
not get out of my van. Almost every person who took that test was dropped off by someone
else. I would not let anyone take me, so I missed the test.
My philosophy of life and teaching is that nothing is worth freaking out over. While teach-
ing a classroom of teenagers is difficult, it is easy compared to being paralyzed. If I have a
problem in a class, I have to figure out a solution. I had to figure out how to shave, how to
brush my teeth again, how to feed myself. If I can do these things, I know I can find a solution
to a teaching problem.
When I started student teaching I had an entire monologue figured out about what I was
going to say to students about being in a wheelchair. I began the opening lesson, “As you can
see I am in a wheelchair and I can’t write on the board, so we will have to work together in
this class.” I was so nervous, that was the end of my speech.
My first semester as a regular teacher, I told students, “This class is not about my being in
a wheelchair. I am your teacher. I just happen to be in a wheelchair. If you have any ques-
tions, you are free to ask me those questions after class.” During the term, only three stu-
dents spoke with me about it. The next time around, I did not even bring the topic up. I fig-
ured when they walked into class, they saw I was in a wheelchair. At this point, most of the
kids had seen me in the building or heard about me and they knew who I was.
There are teachers who react to my being in a chair and they have made comments that
betray their prejudices, but I do not really care what others think anymore. That is their
problem, not mine. After a year of teaching the school assigned me to teach the advanced
placement economic classes. Obviously, my supervisors thought I was qualified to do it. I
was even nominated for an award as an economics teacher.
People ask me how I adjust my teaching to being in a wheelchair. The fact is I never had
to adjust because I was always in a chair. I never taught any other way. The people who have
to adjust are my students so I try to find ways to help them. The big difference for students
is note taking. I never use the board and I rarely use transparencies. I tell students that in my
class they will learn to figure out what is important and that I will help them. I have had
about 850 students since I started teaching and only 3 have complained that they were hav-
ing trouble. I told each of them that I understood their problem and I would try to be more
systematic and give them a signal when to take notes. Now I tell classes, “When I repeat
something, that is your signal that it is important. The second time I say something you
better start writing.” Some classes are really good about it. In other classes, I have to repeat
things three or four times.
Beginning teachers worry a lot about controlling their classes. I am not sure how I control
the class. I just go in and I am who I am. I treat students with respect and I expect to be treated
86 CHAPTER 3