To my horror, one day I noticed one of the male teachers was wearing very long fake nails. They were so explicit, so out there, that I couldn't help but stare. What was this 40-something-year old, level headed really nice guy doing wearing fake nails? It was one of those moments where you look around the room to see if anyone else has seen what you have seen. With a group of learning difficulty students - no chance, they rarely pay attention to the little details - but other members of staff did not seem phased by it.
Many wild things ran through my mind. Did he know he was wearing women's fake nails? Perhaps he was gay? Surely not, it didn't have stereotypical manners of a gay man and I'm sure I heard him mention a wife and baby. Maybe was he an ordinary guy in the day, and a cross dresser by night? No no, he seems too normal a family man for such shananigans. These thoughts occupied my mind for many weeks after, when I would support the student again.
A few months later, my student who has little self-awareness and will stare at the man dribbling in the morning or point to a lady with a funny walk and ask (too loudly) why is she walking like that, went up to the teacher and said, "Why are you wearing those nails?" I could not have been more overjoyed with the question, as I had been asking myself this question for so many weeks. "I do it to strum my guitar," he replied. Hurrah! A huge wave of relief crept over me, he's 'normal'. He's normal!
Shame on me, fancy letting my imagination run wild like that.
