VERY SPECIAL CHILDREN IN OUR SCHOOL
After my wife wrote her story on steemit about the little boy who made toys, I suddenly thought back to my school children in the special class.
These were the kids, who were really struggling in school and they were taken in to very small classes to really try to help them.
They all had an I.Q. of less than 85. So it was just a little more difficult for them.
My way of finding out more about these children was to visit every home where these children lived.
I wanted to know what the circumstances were, and if some of them had problems because of their home life.
I must say, to my surprise these parents were always wonderful parents. There houses were so clean and neat.
When these children came to school they looked better than some of the ones who did well.
Their clothes were neat and you could not see that they had learning problems by looking at them. I think these parents, really tried their best.
Some children are just born with less talent than others. It does not change the way you look at them, and even the way you love them, for most of them were some of the friendliest in the school.
What was really very interesting, is how all of them had these very shiny school shoes, it seemed like one of the important things they learnt at home to work hard and be very neat.
In the class they really tried to write very neatly and did everything that was asked of them in their class. All that was different is that it was done at a very slow pace.
These children were so well trained that they always cleaned there classroom after school before going home.
They were just very special children, and that is why they were in a special class.
Not all schools have special classes but to me it was so important to keep our special class, as where would they go if there were none of these classes available.
To them it was so important when their teacher sent them to the office with their books so that I could praise them, and even put some stars in their books.
It is wonderful how happy you feel, when you see a happy child. There are so many bad things happening in this world, and that just made up for the nasty things when you see a happy child.
These kids just did not have the ability to keep up with the other children of their age. This was not their fault, actually it was nobody’s fault it is just part of life.
I did find that most of these parents never finished school, maybe because they also had problems and that is why they appreciated our special class so much. Some of them did not have that opportunity and started working as soon as they reached school leaving age.
I then remembered one evening when my wife came home, she was teaching at the technical college dressmaking and design.
She was so angry something you don’t often see from her. I remember she said to me “you will not believe what I am going to tell you know!”
I was surprised, and she said all these people I am teaching are grownups, all they have to do is divide by four the make their pattern. I never knew that there were people who do not know how to divide by four as it is so easy, I do not know what to do as their patterns are not working out and then I realised that they did their calculations wrong.
"Now there are people about three of them who have a pattern that will never fit."
She said: “did you know that there are grownups who cannot divide”.
I turned to her and just laughed at her, she asked me what I was laughing at and then I said “What made you think when a child cannot divide by four that they would know how when they were grownup. Age does not make maths easier it you do not understand it."
Shame, she said I never ever thought about it that way. I will tell them to start using calculators maybe we will get somewhere then.
So the one lesson she learnt that evening is that not everyone is the same she must change her way of teaching to accommodate them all if she wanted success in her classes.
Now back to my special class children, they were all such lovely children and we really tried very hard to make them feel happy and really learn something.
Most of them got good jobs, as they were very hard workers. Not always the nicest jobs, but at least they earned their own money, and that just because we really taught them reading, writing and adding.
Most of them got cleaning jobs at hospitals and big mining companies. But they really did their jobs well. I was proud of them and they knew it.
So just remember everywhere in life there is something, for someone to do.
Hope you enjoyed my post and have a wonderful day, from the Wild Coast.
The school I work at does not have special needs classroom. These children are in the regular classrooms. What I have notice these children are very loving and always give their best effort into everything they do. And I am happy to have them in my classroom. The parents of the other children sometimes ask what is wrong with the special needs children and I tell them that they have a loving heart and it takes a little extra time to do things.
This is so true, you answered the parents very well thank you.
Beautiful post - I tend to lean towards the special kids, love it when they understand something and that light goes up in their eyes.
They are really a pleasure to know.