SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER: GOD’S CHOSEN ONE

RUBY T. GALANG

I graduated at this Special Education (SPED) school where I teach, never did I realize that I will be a part of its program, a SPED Teacher to be exact.

Our school is one of the oldest SPED school in our country, having been graduated here an educator who renders my 22nd year of teaching in the Department Education, is an evidence of its aged existence.

I was transferred to this SPED Center in 2004. Excited filled every inch of my veins when I first entered the Fast learner class, having in mind that I belonged to the fortress of intellectual pupils and I should be playing the smartest to them. Colleagues from the other schools envied the position that I am in. They all thought that being in the SPED class makes teaching easier, for SPED pupils are intelligent and easier to teach. I was so elated on having those compliments.

As years passed, experiences taught me the real essence of being a SPED teacher, its real meaning as years unfolds.

Google defines special education as a set of modifies instruction that suits the needs of learners with disabilities that is handled by a SPED trained teacher. SPED teachers vary for different exceptionalities. A SPED teacher may handle Hearing Impaired class, Visually Impaired, Mentally Challenged and the Gifted and Talented class. Each teacher must possess characteristics that facilitate learning to these different exceptionalities.

A hearing-impaired teacher should be equipped with a mastery of sign language. She must possess flexibility in learning these skills, for a hardstroked finger would greatly affect the meaning of every sign language that a hearing-impaired pupil should learn. A truck of patience should always equip a teacher’s back as she interacts with hearing impaired learners.

The teacher of the blind must possess a superior sensitivity and a superior understanding of emotions. An excellent sense of touch must always be observed for the blind pupils display hypersensitivity to every sound that tickles their ears. She must always act as one of the visually-impaired learners to adjust to the situation this disability displays. A kindhearted teacher for pupils who are deprived of the light should always be considered for learning to take place. An understanding of various behavior is needed to understand visual disability.

I remember an experience with one the blind pupil asking what does a coconut husk looks like and why are we making a Christmas décor from it. I replied we make a Christmas ball out of it, but then again, he asked, why? I replied at 17, you don’t know why? he said “Yes”. I let him touch the coconut husk and he understood. I felt sad and guilty of thinking that he was ignorant because that boy was born blind and never he had seen the world around him, that these blinds needed a determined teacher who will be their eyes towards the outside world where they live.

The mentally challenged teacher ranks first on my assessment. Being surrounded by mentally disabled pupils creates a different world for a normal being. One pupil would bite, grab and attacks you when tantrums visit their normality. I remembered requesting a 10- minutes session with them. One pupil claimed that he had a gun, I am quite scared but thought it was just a joke, till uttered “I am the policeman of this class! I will put robbers in jail”, the rest acted as characters in a crime scene, where everyone shouted at each other ignoring my orders to keep quiet. I concluded I cannot be a teacher of that class, God has chosen somebody to be there. God had placed me in the position where I am now to let others know how lucky these children with disabilities for having God chosen teachers who will stand by them and be their guide to make them abled learners despite their disabilit i es.

As a SPED teacher for the gifted and talented, I viewed my pupils as academically superior at first, that makes them special. As I age in this position where I am, their exceptionality exists in their manner of learning. How would I ever forget a Mathematician and my regional awardee for Science Quiz Bee, I can make him learn by allowing him to watch a horror movie as his stimulus to learn, sounded ridiculous but that thing drove him to get to the top. I just made sure by then the movie that I will be showing him is a new release super horror movie for he had most of them.

A teacher with a heart and mind, a teacher is carefully chosen by the supreme being who can embrace all the challenges and emotions these pupils requires that’s how I characterize a SPED teacher. It was not a choice but a destiny to be fulfilled. When God allows the existence these special children, He created with them these SPED teachers who will be with them as they journey their lives, SPED teachers are indeed, God’s Chosen One.

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The author is Special Education Teacher at Dau Elementary School