Thursday, October 2, 2008

Belonephobia

(běl'ə-nə-fō'bē-ə) n. An abnormal fear of sharply pointed objects, especially needles.

As most of you know, I am a sewing teacher at Timberline Middle School. I've had a lot of great stories come and go during my past couple of years here. I had a new one today!

I teach an exploratory class where the kids learn about careers and technology in the area of Family and Consumer Scienes. We just finished up the foods and nutrition unit and moved on to the sewing and textiles unit today. I spent the first few minutes of class going over the sewing machine and how to work them. Then I told them that they would get to sew on paper to get a feel for the machines.

After I explained the assignment, I had this boy come up to me. He said, "Miss Lacey, I'm afraid of needles." This is a pretty tough kid, so I didn't know if I believed me. Then I realized that he was shaking and his face was pretty pale. I asked him if it would help if I guided his paper while he pushed the pedal. Then he started to cry! I felt so bad! He didn't even want to be in the room anymore. This isn't anything I've had happen before in my classes. I guess I get to find something else for him to do for 2 weeks. :)

4 comments:

Laura L Giddens said...

Poor kid. You are such a nice teacher to let him do something else for two weeks...

Katie said...

How funny. I was worried he was going to throw up since you said his face was pale. Too bad cause that would have made the story even better.

Unknown said...

Sad. Poor guy!

Lauren said...

WOW! This is halarious. Who would have known it was a real phobia. If it would have been me I would have had no sympathy and would told him just go sit back down until he started to cry then I would have felt horrible. AMAZING.