T he adulthood life comes with presents that we should embrace, instead of reject. Among the list of gifts, there is one that will be discussed in here: the need to recognize and accept our limitations, and how they help us to be more creative. Our limitations are not for us to be ashamed of what others can do, and we struggle with:
they are just our area for growth,
our area in which we know more help is needed..
Talking about limitation, I remember reading about the situation of the autist student being dragged through the corridor by “the so-called teacher”, and immediately connecting this very disturbing situation, with a person that could literally refuses to accept her limitation when working with ASD children. Not accepting our limitations is being unkind with yourself and with others, and promote situations that must not happen, like the one of the above mentioned. I repeat, must never happen again.
Consequently, my suggestion is to welcome our weaknesses and just deal with them in order to improve our lives and our performances. What is the problem of recognizing to yourself, your supervisor, school principal, etc., that you are not prepared enough for working with a new “company program” and that you need some help, or that you have never worked with children with learning disabilities? Where is the problem recognizing that we have lots of strengths and lots of weaknesses? In my case, for example, I always tell my supervisors: “if you need a math bilingual teacher from kinder to second grade, perfect, I cannot teach math from third grade on without the help of a coach and my team. Simple, clear expectations stated from me and acknowledged by my boss.
In conclusion, I just want to invite you, no matter how old we are, to embrace in a positive way our limitations and our strengths as part of what we are. To be able to discern them very well in order to avoid hurting ourselves or others, especially children: to be truthful with ourselves and with our superiors about our weaknesses will allow shocking situations, like the one above mentioned, to never, ever happen again.
Alicia Donovan
