25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 16: Teacher Insensitivity
SCENARIO 16.6
Diagnosis: Faking
My worst experience was in the fourth grade. My teacher made fun of me and called
me names like “baby” because I was very sick with migraine headaches. She would
accuse me of faking just to go home. I used to cry all the time, especially when I was
sick, because I was scared. I never ever faked. To this day, I am a migraine headache
sufferer and I go through a lot of treatments that include daily medicine, therapy, and
Demerol. But that teacher was the poorest excuse for a teacher that I ever had. My
mother was furious and had a real long, LOUD talk with her one day and then she
changed her ways.
The unsympathetic, insensitive
teacher in this scenario is
not trained to diagnose illnesses, but
she presumed to diagnose faking an
illness. She taunted and ridiculed a
sick child because she thought the
child just wanted to go home. She
labeled the child a baby because
the child cried about her illness.
Migraine is a serious illness that
involves headaches, severe pain, and
visual disturbances. The severity of
the migraine varies by individual.
For a fourth grader, intense pain and
visual disturbances can be very scary.
Sensitive, compassionate teachers
would respect the student’s illness,
show concern, and offer assistance.
SCENARIO 16.7
When the Bough Cracks
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Teachers should never assume that a
student is not ill. If they don’t want to
take the student’s word for it, they
should request doctor’s statements or
other documentation to verify the illness.
Consulting parents about the
legitimacy of the illness is a good
alternative.
I am a lucky migraine sufferer. I
have migraines with visual disturbances
but without the pain. They
began when I was a sophomore in
college. It was very scary for me
and I was an adult at the time.
Good teachers know that illness is
scary, and they make efforts to calm
students and to make them more
comfortable.
I was sick and had ulcers. I went to class and I had to get up and leave the classroom.
I felt ill and knew I was going to be sick. When I got up and was walking toward the
door, my teacher chased me out and yelled at me for leaving. He embarrassed me in
front of everybody. I told him I was sick and was going to the bathroom. He just turned
around and said he was going to mark me absent.