Journey to a Special World
My jobs are worthwhile and enriching. It enabled me to be a better person but nothing prepared me to be a Special Education teacher
From left. (1st row) Teacher Mau, Mae, Teacher
Frank (Director), Teacher Len with one of our
students and Teacher We From the left (2nd row)
Teacher Cel, Teacher Em, Mae, Amy, Teacher
Frans, Jacqueline, Rose and Teacher She
Many say that life is like a book; each chapter of our lives marks a journey full of adventure, a journey colored by life's simple pleasures. My life then was pretty ordinary.
I had been a banker, having worked for three years in a local bank. I have been a professional medical representative for three years in a French pharmaceutical company. My jobs are worthwhile and enriching. It enabled me to be a better person but nothing prepared me to be a Special Education teacher.
Me? A teacher? Much more a Special Education teacher?
Back then, I didn't even know what that word is about. Two decades ago, that was a thought that is next to impossible. I thought teachers are boring. Well, having been a product of a traditional school, I guess I can't be blamed. School for me then is a place where you try to pass the time staring through space and act as inconspicuous as possible so that the teacher would hardly notice you. So, imagine my surprise when I found out there's a school that educates young people with utmost consideration and love. I was even more surprised that these special schools teach special children, it was a wonderful discovery, pretty much like the discovery of a new galaxy or in simpler perspective, discovering one day that your son can now walk by himself.
Let me give you a short description of Special Education. Special Education (SPED) is an instruction designed for students with disabilities and gifts or talents who both have special learning needs. Some of these students have difficulty learning in regular classrooms; they need special education to function in school. And yet others generally do well in regular classrooms, but they need special education to master certain skills to reach their full potential in school and in life.
So, what brought me to this "Special Education world"? I was not driven with the frenzy of its popularity.
On March 2004 while watching TV, a special presentation on children with autism was shown. I was confused and concerned. Having just given birth to a baby boy, I thought it's a new sickness and there's no cure for it. I was terrified thinking about it and needless to say, completely ignorant about it. Then I heard the resource person talk about Special Education and wondered what it's got to do with it.
And so curiosity got in to me. I began asking around. Much to my surprise, West Visayas State University has a program for Special Education. Since then, my life has merged with that special world. I'm now a volunteer teacher at Iloilo Sped Center.
Teaching, teachers and the special children brought a new meaning to my life. Special Education and the experiences I've been through had molded me into a better person and had taught me important values and what's important in life. It made me see the striking contrast in the way we live life. We tend to pressure ourselves too much, make our life so complex and perfect, yet these special children live in simplicities in life and the huge happiness that comes with it.
I am not saying that everyday is an ecstatic and fine day for me at the center. There are times when I get frustrated over what to do with my students --- see "stars" in broad daylight, get pinched when my student is not in the mood for schoolwork, get my hair pulled ---those are what I call the "challenges of the day".
I have yet so much to learn from the center, so many strategies to know and understand in order to be effective in teaching my students. I will continue to engulf whatever my mentor will teach me and most especially to understand and empathize with my students' needs.
That's my journey, a colorful and sometimes challenging one and yet, every page is beautiful and special on its own.