By Stephanie Schottel:

The biggest change that happened to me during the course of the Instructor Excellence Academy came as a result of watching the movie Paper Tigers, which Todd recommended on the first day of class. Paper Tigers follows an alternative high school that has a large population of teenagers who have experienced Acute Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The school's principal and administration decided to change their existing punitive approach to misbehavior and use instead a more thoughtful and empathetic approach with the students there. The result was pretty moving, and it offered me a different perspective, which I was able to use in my online German class.

I had a student who told me she was pregnant and was due relatively soon but that it shouldn't affect her studies. I was a little surprised that she signed up for the class because of the potential overlap between the class and having her first child, but everyone makes different choices. Both the mother and father were in my class.

She ended up giving birth several weeks early and the child was life-flighted to a special NICU at another hospital. Needless to say, she and her husband were pretty freaked out. Now, I can tend to be a black and white thinker and a rule follower. But I had watched Paper Tigers and had learned about the Platinum Rule in the Academy (Do unto others as they would want done to them). I realized that my response to this couple needed to be personalized; I needed to meet them where they were at. To take off points or make all of their assignments late or to tell them that I couldn't bend the due dates would have been not only poor customer service but very black and white thinking.

I checked with my supervisor and learned that it was at my discretion as to how I would handle this. I told the new mom that as long as she submitted the rest of her assignments by the end of the course, they would not be counted as late. And, I worked with the husband too when he struggled to turn in assignments on time due to the situation.

Both students ended up getting A's in the class. It was largely due to their persistence and communication, but also because I was able to step back and look at the situation from a different perspective. They weren't just names on a roster but living, breathing people experiencing something quite life changing. Now, I recognize that what the students experienced might not be considered an ACE by definition, but it was by anyone's standards traumatic. I think the way I handled it was definitely affected by watching the movie and talking about the Platinum Rule.

For those interested, here are some resources for you to explore regarding this topic:

Paper Tigers, currently available on Amazon Prime (as of March 2020)
How the Platinum Rule Trumps the Golden Rule Every Time (Links to an external site.) by Peter Economy
Adverse Childhood Experiences on the CDC website