Gentle Teaching has taught me to look back on how I am as a person, what kind of person I want to be, and how I should act towards others. Gentle Teaching taught me that things don’t always have to be “punishments and rewards”, which is what I was used to. I was certain and convinced that it was the most effective way when it came to supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities. “I’ll do this for you, if you do this for me, but if not, then no.” This is what I was used to and was taught how to “get work done”. But looking back, that was only beneficial for me, because I was letting the person whom I’m supposed to support and take care of know that I had power and control over their life and they should do things only to make my “work” easy. I remember one time I was supporting this individual who loves swimming and goes every Thursday, but was having an off day having lots of “behaviours” and because of that, I was told by my team leader at the time not to take him swimming because he wasn’t listening. We took away something he loved and looked forward to all week all because he wasn’t behaving the way we expected him to.

It sounds pretty sickening as I am typing this and reliving that moment is hard for me and shameful, but more upset that I didn’t know at the time how wrong that was and saddens me even more how it’s still (probably) happening at that workplace today. This would make sense to a lot of people, as people normally don’t do things for others if they’re not receiving something they want back, but not in Gentle Teaching.

Candace

COR Family Member