My Husband Does The Washing

Preconceptions can be dangerous.

Yes, you read the title of this email correctly. My husband does do the washing.

I have an amazing husband. For most of our married life (14 years) my husband Rohan has done the washing. Yes, the clothes washing. The laundry. All of it. For 14 years! And he even separates the colours and the whites! He is an amazing man!

Recently, our faithful washing machine died. It conked out and went to washing machine heaven. Rohan was very busy with work and I had some spare time so we decided that I would go to the shops and buy a new washing machine. I drove to the local Supa-Centre which houses many stores that sell large appliances. After a short time browsing, I engaged in a conversation with a salesman. Very quickly I discovered that I was totally out of my depth.

The salesman began to ask me questions about washing, none of which I could answer. He asked me how often I washed the clothes, how many loads did I do each week, what did I like about my last washing machine, and the clincher question: what was my favourite wash cycle???!!! I tried to explain why I couldn’t answer these questions but the eager salesman did not have any context for my husband being the one who did the washing in our household. This salesman’s past experiences and preconceived ideas and beliefs prevented him from adequately serving me and ultimately prevented him getting the ‘sale’.

I wonder how often our own preconceptions prevent us from effectively teaching our students? I wonder how often we allow our past experiences to determine the way we treat a particular ‘kind’ of student?

This Week’s Assignment:

Think about a particular challenge you have with a student/class right now. Examine what preconceived ideas you might be imposing on them that could be preventing you from overcoming this challenge. You never know, you might be surprised, just like my salesman was.

And to my female teacher friends, if any of you need me to come and talk to your partner about the washing… just let me know! LOL.

Enjoy the journey,

And more importantly,

Enjoy the moments.

🙂

Megan