Story Archive

Teaching with Tourette's Syndrome

I just read an amazing story about Brad Cohen, an elementary school teacher in GA with Tourette's Syndrome. Mr. Cohen has written about his youth and overcoming his disAbility in Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had. Mr. Cohen not only teaches his students, he is teaching the world about Tourette's Syndrome and showing the world how one can achieve one's goals in spite of others who do not believe one can.

After 24 interviews with no job prospects, he is finally hired by a principal who believes, "If we're going to talk the talk, then we'd better walk the walk."

He begins by teaching his second graders about TS ...

"I was born with this ... woop! ... condition and right now JA! there's no medicine that can cure it," I said.

"Do you go to movies?" a child asked.

"Yes, but sometimes I get kicked out, and that makes me feel sad."

"Does it hurt?" someone else asked.

"Sometimes, like when my neck jerks," I answered. "But the noises don't hurt at all."

"Is it contagious?"

"No," I answered. "Tourette's is not ... dra ... DRA ... contagious."

One girl asked, "What can't you do with Tourette's?" I asked what she meant. "Like can you not eat or drink?"

I smiled and responded that I could eat and drink. But I told them that we wouldn't be playing hide-and-seek. Mr. Cohen always loses at hide-and-seek.

When the kids laughed, I knew that everything would be just fine.

(Source: People Magazine, September 12, 2005, 129-132)