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Problem with teacher and class work


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This year I have anatomy as my final science for my last science credit, and the teacher seems fun for the most part. A few weeks ago though, in class we started learning about tissues and we are still learning about them, but I have trouble with looking at the pictures because of a certain phobia I have. I told my teacher about this after some of my friends encouraged me to since it was bothering me so much and was effecting me getting my work done in class. At the time my teacher had told me that they would try and figure something out and they were really nice about it. 

 

After that I thought maybe they would try and find other pictures to use, but the very next day at the beginning of class they had told the class about an argument they had with a few students in the previous class where the students had issues in their personal lives that effected their ability to get the class work done, and they told us that they understood that some students had problems in their personal lives but that shouldn't effect their ability to get their work done to the best of their ability. Even though I knew it might not have been directed at me, I still felt like there was a chance that it was because of what I had recently told them. Later on in class that same day they put one of the pictures I told them I couldn't look at, on the board and left it there for the rest of the time in class. 

 

This all occurred during our first week of learning about tissues and now it's about to be the fourth week of learning about them, and I still can't look at about half of the pictures that are used in class. For the first week and a half of this I usually would end up worrying about going to that class for most of the day, and after the class I would still think about having to go back the next day. At this point though, for about a week now I have mainly just ended up reading a book or laying my head down during that class since I can't look at the work most of the time.

 

I don't know how to get around this problem since I don't want to bother trying to talk to the teacher about this again. I can easily read about the tissues outside of class, but the main issue is that we have to identify them by the picture 50% of the time on quizzes. If anyone has any solutions I would appreciate it, but if nobody does then that's also fine.

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That sounds incredibly insensitive and unprofessional on the part of your teacher. Do you have a school counselor you could talk to? I don't mean a therapist, I mean the one that helps you plan for college and change classes if needed and whatnot. I don't think you should have to deal with a teacher who won't listen - do you have a parent who can advocate for you? 

Sorry, I'm assuming you're in highschool. 

Just, you tried and your teacher didn't help. At this point I'd suggest going up the ladder. Talk to a school administrator or department head or whatever it takes. Because their refusal to make even the most basic adjustments for you is directly hindering your ability to learn and that is not okay. Not at all. 

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I don't have much advice other than if you can switch to a non-biological science class at this point despite four weeks passing, you should. But I also want to say that even though your teacher was being insensitive, to an extent there is nothing they could do even if they wanted to. Cells and tissues look like how they look. If you teach anatomy, you have to show those pictures, because they depict the reality of what they look like, and you have to teach their function in the body based on their form.

 

Essentially, the subject is more a problem than your teacher, even if they are insensitive. No one can change that the study of anatomy requires seeing accurate pictures of the tissues.

 

Maybe try a sort of rough exposure therapy for yourself? That's the only real solution for phobias. In a calm, quiet place by yourself, set aside a minute to look at one of the pictures from you class that bother you for a few seconds, then cover it, take a few breaths, and repeat until that time is over. When you feel like you can maybe look at the picture without covering it, try a longer period of time looking at it on a different day. When you are completely comfortable with that picture, try the same process with a different picture.

 

Regardless, best wishes :(

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15 hours ago, Thujaplicata said:

Do you have a school counselor you could talk to?

The most my school counselor could probably do is put me into a different science class. But the problem with that is usually you can only change your classes during the first week of the semester and it's already 2 months into school right now. There is someone I know who switched out of a science class because it was an AP class that they were struggling in, but it still took about a month for them to be able to get a different class. 

 

15 hours ago, Thujaplicata said:

Talk to a school administrator or department head or whatever it takes.

I don't really like asking for help most of the time and prefer to try and figure things out myself, so this would be a bit hard for me. The only reason some of my friends found out about the phobia I have was because I got to the point where I had to ask them to help me with a certain section of my work that had pictures, and then they encouraged me to talk with the teacher about it. And after the teacher seeming nice about it, but then not actually helping at all, I don't want to risk getting the same reaction from an administrator or causing any problems.

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12 hours ago, Haneul said:

Cells and tissues look like how they look.

 

12 hours ago, Haneul said:

No one can change that the study of anatomy requires seeing accurate pictures of the tissues.

When we have to use microscopes for group work, I don't mind how they look, but the main problem is the drawings that the teacher uses for picture examples. If it was actual pictures of what is shown on the microscope, those don't bother me as much, but the teacher uses drawings of what they look like as the examples and for some reason those always freak me out most of the time.

 

12 hours ago, Haneul said:

Maybe try a sort of rough exposure therapy for yourself? That's the only real solution for phobias. In a calm, quiet place by yourself, set aside a minute to look at one of the pictures from you class that bother you for a few seconds, then cover it, take a few breaths, and repeat until that time is over. When you feel like you can maybe look at the picture without covering it, try a longer period of time looking at it on a different day. When you are completely comfortable with that picture, try the same process with a different picture.

I've considered trying exposure therapy, but I'm too scared to actually do it considering how I feel when I look at the pictures. I've also tried reasoning with myself before trying to look at the pictures and explain to myself that it's just how tissues look and there's no reason for it to creep me out, but then when I look at it it doesn't help at all. And I have tried looking at one of the pictures for a long period of time to try and get used to it but then I would get too bothered by it and end up closing the picture and later on when trying to look at it again I could barely even glance at it. Thank you for the suggestion though.

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Ack. A very unpleasant situation. I guess I was thinking maybe a school counselor could talk to you about what could help - using actual microscope images for alternative questions to those on the quiz, having the illustrations on handouts and microscope photos on the slides or something. Just, something. Anyway, then maybe your school counselor or parent or administrator or whoever could advocate with your teacher for you. I was thinking more of them working out accomodations or alternatives of some sort rather than switching classes. 

 

But yeah, asking for help can be really hard. That's part of why I suggested asking someone else to advocate for you. So hopefully you could explain your boundaries once and then just not have to deal with it. 

 

Alternatively, if you can think of accommodations that would help you could suggest them to/request them of the teacher?

But that's still having to face down a teacher who doesn't seem to want to help. You could bring suggestions for someone else to present...

 

I wish I had a perfect solution for you, and I wish you the best of luck!

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Are you in high school or college? Also, are you trying to get a science degree or do you just need a certain number of science credits to fulfill a general education requirement?

 

I do not know where you live or what the laws are. In the US, if a school accepts government funding for special education, teachers have to accommodate disabilities or the whole school will lose funding. So the key would be to get formally diagnosed with a disability. If you can do that, accommodating your disability should override any rules about changing classes late in the semester or having to take anatomy rather than substituting a nonbiological science. Even if you can't get formally diagnosed in time, I still think you should immediately go to the principal or school counselor and explain that you asked for accommodations in your anatomy class and your teacher refused and you are afraid you will fail the class as a result.

 

Tenured college professors have much more power than high school teachers and can probably get away with refusing to make accommodations even if you are formally diagnosed. If you are in college, try to convince administration that you should be allowed to drop the class without penalty. Then try to convince them to let you substitute a nonbiological science credit. Don't start a new college science class eight weeks into the semester. You will need to take a different science next semester or during the summer or else get credit by exam.

 

 

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Well, just chiming in as a teacher here. Perhaps the teacher didn’t get the important fact, that this topic was a major issue for @Kurokuma I have had a ton of kids (primary school) come to me and explain why they couldn’t, just couldn’t…because of …I can’t read this book, because my dog died three years ago….  I don’t like vegestables, so I can never slice a cucumber, my foot hurts, i need a break…. We get a lot of that. Very often, both child and teacher will be best off with a ‘sure you can. Take a deep breath and lets do this together’

 

I understand, that @Kurokuma has a more deep rooted issue here. Perhaps, the teacher can be pursuaded into seeing it as an important task to help you through this, by providing special pictures/assignments for you. In my world, I need documentation if it is actually a phobia.

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On 9/26/2022 at 10:51 PM, Thujaplicata said:

Anyway, then maybe your school counselor or parent or administrator or whoever could advocate with your teacher for you.

I did mention the issue to my mom before since she has the same phobia as me and I knew she would probably understand how I felt about the situation, but in the end she just ended up saying "people don't care" since she considers people to only care about themselves and no one else most of the time, so I doubt she would discuss this with an administrator for me.

On 9/26/2022 at 10:51 PM, Thujaplicata said:

Alternatively, if you can think of accommodations that would help you could suggest them to/request them of the teacher?

I had originally told the teacher that there were certain photos that I was fine with and others that were hard for me to look at when I first discussed the problem with them and I tried to show them with the pictures that were on our work, but at the time they didn't seem to be paying attention. Since I know I have to be able to identify things in class, the only thing I would need is for them to change some of the pictures, but considering how things have gone so far I don't think that's likely to happen.

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On 9/26/2022 at 11:34 PM, nanogretchen4 said:

Are you in high school or college? Also, are you trying to get a science degree or do you just need a certain number of science credits to fulfill a general education requirement

I'm in high school and I just need the science credit to reach the requirement to graduate. 

On 9/26/2022 at 11:34 PM, nanogretchen4 said:

So the key would be to get formally diagnosed with a disability. If you can do that, accommodating your disability should override any rules about changing classes late in the semester or having to take anatomy rather than substituting a nonbiological science. Even if you can't get formally diagnosed in time, I still think you should immediately go to the principal or school counselor and explain that you asked for accommodations in your anatomy class and your teacher refused and you are afraid you will fail the class as a result.

When I first found out about the phobia I have, I searched about it online to see if there was a way to get rid of it and I found out that it doesn't get officially diagnosed and that it's considered more of an anxiety type of thing, so I think I'd have trouble getting an official diagnosis for it. I also don't want to try discussing this with another teacher or administrator since it was hard for me to bring it up the first time with my teacher and I'm scared that they won't take it serious just like my teacher didn't. Even though I'm scared to fail the class or for my GPA to drop, I'd like to try and see if there's a way for me to solve this without involving the teacher or any other teachers or school staff. But considering the different solutions people have offered and the fact that it seems hard to solve this without discussing it with my teacher or someone else, I might try talking to them one more time about it and if they still don't do anything I might just try and change the class next semester. Thank you for the suggestions though.

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17 hours ago, MrDane said:

I understand, that @Kurokuma has a more deep rooted issue here. Perhaps, the teacher can be pursuaded into seeing it as an important task to help you through this, by providing special pictures/assignments for you. In my world, I need documentation if it is actually a phobia

I might try and discuss it again with them. The phobia I have doesn't have an official diagnosis and is considered to be more of an anxiety related type of thing, so I wouldn't really be able to get proper documentation for it.

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On 9/29/2022 at 2:44 AM, Kurokuma said:

I might try and discuss it again with them. The phobia I have doesn't have an official diagnosis and is considered to be more of an anxiety related type of thing, so I wouldn't really be able to get proper documentation for it.

…or at least explain, that you really want to learn this, and perhaps then the teacher wants to provide special atuff for you. 

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