What is your biggest inspiration ?

Thank you Ruth for your nice thoughts.

  Sometimes when I’m with autistic/dyslexic children something can happen that REALLY puts me in my place (not just me, we all experience it) Children who seem so far away from our world can see things we simply are not aware of and it comes as a real blow when it’s US that “twig on” and become the learners. I put that badly but I’m sure you know what I mean.

 I have recently worked with a lad who has an amazing ability with numbers and drawing, his abilities are beyond our understanding yet he has no social skills at all. Why do I tell you this? We could, given the right key to unlock his gifts; all learn to live together in a much kinder world where people are able to get on with each other and except our differences as normal, just as he has to each day toward us. We must seem a very strange bunch of people to him and a very strange world that we live in.

 He inspires me, a little boy the world will probably never see.

Its got to be music for me, it speaks so many languages and moods. Also walking in open countryside, coastline,  forests or mountains, thats pretty inspiring too, it certainly puts things in perspective, and clears your head out

There's plenty of people that inspire me, just to many to mention, for all different reasons, people you meet throughout life, people I work with, parents etc etc etc......

What a great thread Mick! Thanks for starting it.

Music seems to be universally inspirational doesn't it?  I am very eclectic in my tastes where music is concerned. There is no rime or reason, if I hear it and I like it then I like it. Different genres speak to my many different moods.

Ruth, I too am inspired by history, but especially by certain historical figures and for many different reasons.

Ruth and Mick,

Thank you for introducing a wonderful thread which is dear to my heart. I actually retired at the end of the last academic year from special needs teaching, as a Curriculum Leader and tutor, for Students with Learning Difficulties, so I too have experienced working with people on the autistic spectrum, and other special needs.

My philosophy was that you can improve the quality of life for such students by working on their communication skills, more so than the embedded core subjects of literacy and numeracy. Often the learning difficulty of a student would mean that if he or she did enter the work place, it would not be at 'Rocket Science' level, but teaching that person how to be more sociable, and 'likeable' even, would raise self esteem and self actualization, increase the student's  circle of friends, and foster a greater understanding between the student, his family, and peers.

Ray