A Classroom Exercise That Teaches Self-Advocacy and Celebrates Differences

A colleague of mine once devised a brilliant classroom exercise that gifted her students an enduring lesson in self-advocacy and accepting themselves — and others — for who they are.

For the “project,” she gave each student an index card with a set of unique medical symptoms. The task, due in a week: Research your symptoms and identify the diagnosis. The following week, the teacher had her students quickly read out their symptoms and their diagnostic guesses. Her job was to play doctor and prescribe treatment for each student’s condition.

One student began: “My arm bone is jutting out. There’s swelling and bleeding at the spot. I’m in intense pain. I must have a bone fracture.”

The teacher: “Yes, that’s right! Take an aspirin and come back in a week if you don’t feel better.”

She hurried to the next student, ignoring the confused looks around the room.

[Get This Free Download: 5 Steps to More Forceful ADHD Self-Advocacy]

“I have a really bad headache, a fever, a runny nose, and a sore throat,” said the other student. “I think I have the flu.”

“Correct,” the teacher said. “Take an aspirin and come back in a week if you aren’t feeling better. Next!”

On and on the teacher went, assigning the same treatment, no matter how nonsensical, to the students’ varied conditions and ignoring their objections.

After a few moments (and an uproar across the classroom), the teacher stopped. Now came the time to reveal the real purpose of the project.

[Read: Putting Kids in Charge of Their Learning Needs]

“Here’s the deal,” she said. “Like your index cards of symptoms, each of you has a unique set of strengths and needs. And just as your symptoms require different treatments, each of you needs different things from me to succeed. And my job is to be fair to each of you individually.”

Some people think that fairness, she noted, is giving everyone the exact same thing. But was it fair, she asked the class, to prescribe aspirin for a bone fracture? The class, of course, said no.

Fair, she emphasized, doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same thing. It means everyone gets what they need to be successful. Some may need more support than others, but the result should be the same: Success in the classroom.

“Now, I’m not a mind reader,” she said to the class. “I can’t help you be successful if you don’t tell me what you need. You’re going to have to help me with this.”

Try this simple project with your classroom. In doing so, you’ll cultivate a classroom culture where individual strengths and needs are normalized, not stigmatized, and where students of all abilities feel comfortable advocating for their varied needs to thrive.

Self-Advocacy Activities: Next Steps

The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude webinar titled, “Avoiding & Recovering from 2e Burnout: Support for Gifted Students” [Video Replay & Podcast #467] with Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D., which was broadcast on August 17, 2023.

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