"Shall I put your footplate down for you Miss Greene?"

I know that I will encounter much negativity and ignorance in the future especially in relation to my choice of career. But I shouldn't have to face it. Having a disability does not prevent me from being a good teacher and it is not easy to be seen in this light no matter how much I try to stop it bothering me. I know that having a disability affects most aspects of my life and I'm okay with that but there are two main aspects that I never wanted it to impact upon, one of which is teaching.  My whole life has been geared towards achieving this aim as teaching is the only thing that I have ever wanted to do. I love working with children and helping them learn new things. It gives me a level of satisfaction that I do not get in any other situation. I am so passionate about education and helping people realise and achieve their potential. Despite this, I know that some people will only ever see a wheelchair and that there is very little I can do about that but I can gurantee it won't be the children I teach. I often think children aren't given enough credit, they are so open-minded and non-judgemental and I wish adults would take note of this. This is why I find comments that indicate that children don't feel comfortable/are harmed by being exposed to disability the most offensive. Most children just ask and then move on. My current placement class have just realised they have a doll in a wheelchair and keep bringing it to me saying 'look, its you!' (even though the doll does not look like me in the slightest) its brilliant because they are happy to make the association and to talk about disability. I am saddened that disability discrimination is still rife in the 21st century and that people aren't always willing to be flexible and adapt things to make them more inclusive. I will never teach in the same way as an able-bodied person would because I can't but there are plenty of ways to teach and I will find what works for me. I remember working in my gap year and it got to the summer term and I had made tyre tracks in the sand outside and one of the children was trying to work out why. He knew that they'd come from wheels but when asked 'who brings wheels to school?' he couldn't answer it because he no longer saw a wheelchair, he saw me.