To talk about the knowledge that the primary school teacher It is necessary to start from a fundamental premise in the work of every pedagogue. Reference is being made to the duty of the teacher to plan their teaching, educational and training activities, starting with the diagnosis and characterization of their students. This will enable you to timely distinguish the peculiarities of the group and therefore outline the teaching-educational process, as well as its comprehensive training according to these specificities..
From this characterization, for example, talented children will be known that require differentiated attention by the teacher, or those who suffer from a chronic illness non-communicable like epilepsy, whose symptoms do not appear until the time of the crisis, and who also take special care.
From the foregoing it follows that the teacher must (must) be able to handle a wide spectrum of knowledge and information, depending on their comprehensive preparation to constructively assume the teaching-learning process. To his credit, he would have to accumulate knowledge not only about epilepsy, but also about blindness, the visually impaired, students with mobility difficulties, stutterers, among others; whether this were the case of students that make up their group of classes, or not, since in their hands it is teach how to relate to these special educational needs.
In this sense, along with this knowledge that is the responsibility of the teacher, there is also that of knowing how to respect the difference; as well as teaching to respect it. So, it is not so much a matter of choosing one knowledge or another (referring to knowledge about epilepsy or about respect for difference) but about concentrating both efforts, that is to say: knowing about epilepsy -if this is the case- and about the issues of respect for difference. Specifically about this disease, the teacher cannot be satisfied with being only tolerant, since he has the responsibility before him of knowing how to act in the face of a possible crisis of the child.
For the teacher to be able to respect the difference or differences and in this way teach to respect them, first of all he must be in a position to be able to recognize them; distinguish what is different and why it is. Only then can he appropriate them as one of the processes by which human beings relate to each other and to things, deciphering, decoding and understanding them..
In the current context, respect for differences constitutes a fundamental premise for any behavior. Among the characteristics that distinguish us is that of being different from each other, since the personality is unique and unrepeatable. Man constitutes a biological-psychological and social unit (as well as spiritual), therefore the acceptance of the other becomes a necessity demanded by social coexistence. Among the functions of the teacher, therefore, is indoctrinate in this capacity, for which you need to be previously prepared.
If not approached with caution the question about respect for difference, this could become a crossroads that we would look at unilaterally. This means that it is not enough to recognize what is different and respect it, since this does not automatically imply overcoming the initial prejudices from which it is divergence it was perceived. It is not about proclaiming oneself respectful of the difference per se, as it is about being able to fully assume the behavior to which such an attitude towards life invites.
Returning the analysis to the issue of epilepsy specifically, it is necessary to add in this sense that one of the possible paths is not so much that of respect for difference, but that of being able to appropriate this disease not as a condition that makes you different for to be able to assume it without prejudice. In other words, it is not about recognizing the child with epilepsy to treat him as different, that is, I respect you but you continue to be different. Rather, the social representation of this should be similar to the social representation of other diseases that have not been stigmatized. It is worth emphasizing that epilepsy, cancer and HIV are among the three most tainted diseases on a social level.
School-age children with epilepsy often suffer discrimination due to, among other causes, ignorance about the disease. The issuance of worthless judgments causes that far from knowing the causes and development of this condition, together with the set of activities that a person with epilepsy can carry out, we only stop to demarcate the restrictions with which they have to walk through life.
Knowing about the disease allows the primary teacher to realize that the possible limitations of this child cannot be compared with those suffered by an infant with blindness, low vision, or difficulties in his psychomotor development. For all these cases, the education they receive is carried out in special schools and with teachers trained for it. The child with epilepsy should not necessarily attend schools of this type, their education takes place in normal schools. Very rarely and depending on the type of epilepsy, you receive specialized educational treatment.
Children with special educational needs attend schools trained for their education, where they are on an equal footing with their peers, who may suffer from the same problems. As already mentioned, their teachers possess a specific preparation that allows them to develop professional work in accordance with the demand. Therefore, it is more difficult that in these cases there is social rejection and discrimination by fellow group members.
Instead the child with epilepsy attends normal education school, hence the need for their teachers to be properly prepared to face the disease and help both the child who suffers from it, as well as the rest of the classmates to assume it without prejudice to the formation of all. In this sense, teachers have to be in a position to prepare not only for them to take on the education of the infant with epilepsy, but also so that the rest of the group is not affected by this and accepts their partner as themselves..
Remember that school, family and community, constitute the three fundamental edges on which the satisfactory formation of citizens depends on their harmonious functioning. There are times when pedagogues even have the responsibility not only to prepare children with epilepsy and their classmates for life, but also the parents themselves. So the teacher must treasure the necessary knowledge to face this disease in order to promote an unprejudiced social representation of it, and not contribute to re-producing wrong and denigrating codes about it. Educating in respect, in the fullest sense of the word, also constitutes a healthy teaching for the life of the infant, in this decisive stage of personality formation.
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