In 2014, the Washington Post reported on a "magical" teacher named Cochrane, who worked as a teacher at Shizilu Middle School in New Mexico.
Teaching is a sacred profession, requiring not only rigorous assessments, but even a regular qualification test of the union every few years.
Basically, it can be said that to be able to work as a teacher, you must not only have a high degree of awareness, but also have the professional skills that match it.
But what people did not expect was that this teacher with 17 years of teaching experience was a completely illiterate person who did not even know his own name.
After the incident was exposed, it immediately attracted the attention of the whole United States, and people wondered why Cochrane would be a teacher for seventeen years in such a situation.
Behind his back, what kind of story is happening?
Boys are born with "dyslexia" and are unable to read and read
John Cochrane was born in New Mexico in 1938 to parents who were ordinary local office workers and loved his newborn son.
On the outside, Cochrane is lively and cute, almost no different from children of the same age.
However, after going to school, Cochrane's parents gradually discovered that there was something wrong with Cochrane, that is, the learning ability was too poor, almost equal to zero.
When the other children had begun to read and write, Cochrane could not even spell out 26 English letters.
At first, Cochrane's parents didn't care, thinking that Cochrane might have been distracted for other reasons, but over time, they also found the clues.
Cochrane seems to have a congenital "repulsiveness" to the letters and words written on paper, and no matter how much education is emphasized, he cannot recognize the ordering of these letters and words.
Cochrane himself was very obedient and devoted to his parents' teaching, but after each lesson, when his parents wanted to ask questions, he had forgotten all the content he had taught before.
For this situation, Cochrane's parents initially thought that there was a problem with their son's mental and memory.
However, when they took their son to the hospital for examination, they found that Cochrane's spirit and memory were normal, but he suffered from a special disease, that is, dyslexia.
For dyslexia, there are currently two mainstream views in medical research, the first of which is that dyslexia is a psychological disorder.
The second study holds that dyslexia is not a disease, let alone an incurable disease, but an inability to adapt to the reading and writing comprehension of conventional education, and many masters and geniuses in history have suffered from this disease, such as Edison, Einstein, Picasso and others.
However, no matter how dyslexia is defined, there is still no perfect and accurate treatment for this disease.
After hearing the news, Cochrane's parents were silent, they hesitated to tell their son the news, and how to get along with them in the future.
In the end, after consideration, Cochrane's parents, like their sons and school teachers, truthfully explained Cochrane's situation and hoped that they could take special care.
At that time, the United States was far less "politically correct" than it is today, and the title of dyslexia was tantamount to labeling Cochrane's social and future as "disabled".
Surprisingly, however, after learning of Cochrane's situation, the school showed great sympathy, and they agreed to the request of Cochrane's parents to allow Cochrane not to take any of the school's ordinary students' performance tests.
Fortunately, after learning that he had such a condition, Cochrane himself did not care.
For him, the words in the book are simply the most boring thing in the world, and since he doesn't know it, it is still convenient.
Cochrane loves sports and has a strong talent. In the time that followed, he put all his energy into physical education classes.
After graduating from elementary school, he joined the middle school as a special student, and later was admitted to the sports department of New Mexico State University, and was magically admitted to college.
After graduating from college, Cochrane fell into the same entanglement as many people, that is, how to find a job that suited him.
At that time, the society had entered an industrial society, and if you were illiterate, it was almost difficult to find a suitable job, or even to maintain a basic life.
Cochrane has made many attempts, delivering newspapers, delivering milk, and going to the supermarket to do odd jobs, but they have all failed, and he is very upset by all kinds of blows.
But he didn't give up and eventually came to his former alma mater, where he wanted to become a physical education teacher.
After learning of Cochrane's predicament, the former teachers did not watch, but chose to actively help him.
With the help of his teachers, he came to the American Teachers Union, took the physical education teacher qualification examination, and after three years of training, he successfully became a physical education teacher and returned to his own middle school to teach.
For privacy reasons, neither the teachers' unions nor the schools have ever made public their identity as "dyslexia."
Cochrane was reluctant to spend time with his students as disabled, so the story of his dyslexia was concealed.
People only know that there is a lively physical education teacher in the local middle school, and no one can imagine that this teacher can't even write the name of the student.
Coached for 17 years, finally confessed
During the class, Cochrane was unable to take the roll call because he was illiterate.
Therefore, through his spare time, he relied on his memory to know every classmate, roll call support, he would take out the roll call table, pretend to carry out roll call activities,
In the classroom, after coming to the field he is familiar with, Cochrane can easily complete the training course.
Cochrane's athletic talents are also lively and active, mingling with his students, and these two factors have made him a strong coaching ability.
In his classroom, students excelled and almost never failed an exam.
Due to the simplicity of his job, Cochrane's career has been very smooth, and many people talk about Cochrane, and many years later, his former students often come here to visit Cochrane.
In the local town, Cochrane also became a celebrity, and almost all the young people in the town had been taught by him, and when walking on the road, these former students would also greet the teacher in a friendly way.
Amazingly, before Cochrane's concealment, none of these students knew that their teacher had dyslexia.
Cochrane's coaching career lasted a full 17 years, and after saving enough savings to make ends meet, he chose to leave the teaching staff.
And the reason is also very simple, that is, in this position, I have become more and more inadequate.
With the development of modern biological science and technology, physical education teachers are far from leading students to play ball, and they must understand various professional knowledge and skills.
However, Cochrane obviously did not have such conditions, and on this day he was no longer willing to ask for help like today's teacher, and finally chose to leave.
With the professional title of "excellent teacher", he drew a perfect end to his seventeen-year career, and after leaving the school to learn Cochrane, he confessed his situation to his students.
After the story of this seventeen-year-old secret was made public, Cochrane was also regarded as a "legend". The fact that an illiterate person has been in a classroom position for seventeen years shows how powerful it is.
After the century of Cochrane spread, it was widely questioned by people, many people think that Cochrane suffers from such a disease, and staying in the classroom will "mislead people"?
But more people have shown their respect for Cochrane, a physically handicapped person can play the most role, tenacious, this spirit is not worthy of social encouragement?
But in any case, For the outside world controversy, Cochrane does not care anymore.
In an interview with reporters, Cochrane said that he considered himself a teacher, but at the same time, he was also a deceiver, but fortunately, he had done his job perfectly.
When Cochrane revealed his secret to the public, he was most surprised by his family.
At Cochrane's home, Cochrane's eldest son, unaware of his father's illness, heard the news and expressed "disbelief."
He really couldn't imagine what kind of setbacks and difficulties his father had experienced over the years.
But instead, Cochrane's three-year-old daughter did not care about the news, because she already knew about her father's problem.
Cochrane can't read, but he loves children very much, and often takes on the task of caring for his little daughter, who listens to fairy tale books. Cochrane had no choice but to pretend to pick up a book and make up a story.
However, because Cochrane's level is so limited, every time he makes up a story, he will be punctured by his younger daughter, so he generously admits to his daughter that he does not know words.
Although her daughter is only three years old, when she said this, Cochrane felt much more relaxed. He once confessed to his wife that he "never had a day like this relaxed." ”
While flawed in reading, Cochrane's excellent athletic and social skills are also unquestionable.
His greatness is to prove to people that even if the body is flawed, it can be integrated into the whole society, and to this day, Cochrane's deeds still encourage many patients to live bravely.
Revelations from the "John Klenke" incident
If we look at it holistically, Cochrane's life has been relatively smooth.
Although his personal conditions are not very good, with years of hard work and the help of people around him, he has successfully integrated into the whole society and become a physical education teacher.
But we also need to realize that Cochrane's life was actually full of difficulties, and from the first day he was sent to school, Cochrane's nightmare was completely opened.
Due to his illiteracy, it was difficult for him to make real friends, and this difficulty revolved around Cochrane's life, and even many people believed that it was Cochrane's intellectual defect, discriminated against him, and tried to skip school in his early years.
But Cochrane was also very fortunate that his parents and teachers around him did not give up on him, but constantly encouraged him.
Even when Cochrane couldn't keep up with his classmates after school, he still wasn't a stupid kid who was considered naughty.
It's not scary to have a congenital disease, it's scary to be when everyone around you looks at you with the eyes of a "patient."
We have to admit that the relevant agencies and governments in New Mexico have done a good job in helping people with disabilities.
First of all, they did not directly announce Cochrane's condition, marking him with a disabled "brand", and secondly, they also gave Cochrane some help and care in their daily work.
It is because of their help that Cochrane has such a unique life.
Decades have passed since the story of Cochrane, but there are still many things worth learning from.
One of the realities we need to recognize is that even today, in the eyes of most people, it may not discriminate against people with disabilities, but there is still a "pessimistic" attitude towards the employment of people with disabilities.
Even many people think that disabled people only need to stay at home honestly, and don't add trouble to the people around them is already the best ending.
This view is reflected in all walks of life in our society, although we now set up toilets for the disabled in almost every shopping mall, and the state will subsidize and take care of them accordingly, but basically no unit or institution will be willing to accept disabled people into employment.
This is tantamount to restricting the personal development of the majority of physically handicapped people.
"Disabled people" is a very broad group, although some of them are unable to participate in normal production work, but a considerable number of them are in fact no different from normal people and can complete certain social work.
For this part of the people, we should treat them with the eyes of normal people, and give them more recognition from the psychological and social levels, so that they can better integrate into this society.
Helping the disadvantaged is one of the inherent fine traditions of the Chinese nation.
As early as thousands of years ago, in the "Book of Rites and Journeys of the Great Road", it was written that such a sentence was written: "Reserved, widowed, lonely, lonely, and abandoned, all have their own support."
However, it is impossible for us to fundamentally solve the problem by limiting our attention to economic subsidies, and before this sentence, the author Dai Sheng wrote that "the old will have an end, the strong will be useful, and the young will grow."
We can do that if the group is "old and old", but how can they be "strong and useful"? Cochrane's story is nothing less than a new way of thinking.
Resources:
"The Illiterate Teacher Who Lasted Seventeen Years". Reporter: Delandis. French