For the first time, today I had a guest speaker for AP Psych on the topic of eating disorders in general and her own experiences with anorexia in particular. This was a student who struggled with anorexia last academic year, missed a month of school due to in-patient care, and saw extensive therapy.
She is very public about her struggles with an eating disorder, and yet I naturally worry about the effect of speaking in public on the topic; I don’t want her to suffer in any way as a result of sharing her story publicly.
She is actually a student of Mr Joo’s and spoke to his classes, but was kind enough to come and speak to mine as well. In the picture above, notice the “organizing question for the year”:
How can I use psychology to improve myself, my friends, my family, and my part of the world?
I love that this student’s response embodies our hope for the course so well. Following her presentation and brief Q&A session, the class and I had a great discussion about the causes, the wide-ranging effects on the individual and those around them — and I ended with what I hope was a message of practical value to the students.
Our discussion did end with between 15- and 10-minutes left in class, and I was uncomfortable moving on to the next topic, so I just let students chit-chat with each other, or do work for another class; we just let the clock run down.
All in all, it was a great class… I felt — and I’m incredibly thankful for the student’s willingness to tell her story.