lookin' back

Eiko says...

Teaching English today, me and my two students hit an interesting and very familiar topic in the text book were going through: Anorexia

The subject starts with a article written by a young woman suffering from anorexia nervosa. The article consists of her day to day life at a institution specifically designed to help anorexic patients like herself, her struggles, her fears, and her hopes.

Along with the article, there are around a dozen discussion points, two activities (where you put yourself in the parent's shoes of somebody suffering from the illness, and you describe how you feel, and what steps you will take to help your child etc.), a fact box, and so on and so forth. We talked and discussed this issue for an hour and a half, and many interesting points were covered, and many interesting conclusions were made.

The whole class was very deep and the students talked much more than they usually do. They seemed very much in deep thought when we finished the class, and seemed to be pondering the topic. Naturally so. It's a very complicated, intricate and thought provoking topic to be discussing for a language lesson.

I was left with the strong admiration for all the parents (esp. my own) with a child that has this mental disease, and who refuses to give up hope despite the circumstances. How Mom and Dad kept their sanity and weren't admitted to the mental hospital themselves is a mystery and a miracle all on their own! Whew!