Teaching with Unusual Methods
Vanessa Obioha encounters a teacher who has successfully managed physically-challenged children with the wholesome in the same environment
Pupils are often frightened of the proprietor of their school. At the mention of his/her name, they are on their best behaviour. Some may scamper or stay mute at his/her presence. But this is hardly the case with the proprietor of Standard Bearer’s School (SBS), Lekki, Modupe Adeyinka-Oni.
She exudes a motherly disposition which is evidently seen in the way she interacts with her pupils. She hi-fives them, hugs them, and even listens to their whining. This aura of hers rubs off on her teachers. They express a certain degree of patience towards these young ones who could be a handful at times.
At SBS, the teachers are trained to attend to both the physical and emotional needs of the students. Their work extends to ensuring that there is a mental and emotional balance in the child’s development. Oni takes pride in her teachers because she believes that they are keen on the profession and didn’t stumble on it.
“Our teachers are passionate about teaching, unlike 30 years ago when I was a teacher and embarrassed to say I’m a teacher. Some of the people in the profession today stumbled on it out of unemployment or simply because they realised that they love children because they teach in Sunday schools. But that is wrong. When we are developing future leaders, it should be one of the core professions in our society.
“In England today, if you want to be a teacher in England you better be at the top, they won’t take anything less....that’s why England’s educational system is one of the best, if not the best in the world. But over here, we are leaving the education of the future into the hands of the people who come into it by the way of ‘I don’t have anything else to do’ or their qualifications are not quite bright; and we expect them to do a great job and impact the next generation. That’s not possible. It’s garbage in garbage out.”
Oni also expects the parents of the pupils to be equally active in their child’s education. She interviews them and expects them to be actively involved in their ward’s daily activities. She bemoaned the fate of children whose parents hardly pay attention to them in pursuits of their career.
“It is wrong for parents to think that teachers can deal with every problem or dig up every problem that a child has. It takes active parents, someone who has intuition and perception on what she is looking for on her child’s education to be able to say one system is good and one system is bad.”
Being a teacher herself, Oni understood the implication of saying the wrong things to a child and how it can affect his or her self-esteem. For instance, her child Wole was the reason behind the establishment of SBS. Describing her son as a quiet boy, Oni was shocked to know later that one of the reasons why Wole never read to anyone was because he was referred to as ‘ode’ by one of his teachers when he was asked to read in class. Having inquired from his uncle the meaning of ode, Wole had vowed never to read again.
Such instances are what Oni tries to avoid in her school. Her learning pedagogy is an interactive teaching technology that will mould the child both mentally and emotionally and strengthen their weaknesses. The class population does not exceed 16 and there are more than one teacher in a class. Most of the teachers are encouraged to bring their wards to school to keep a closer eye on them.
However, what sets SBS apart from its competitors, besides its buoyant teaching model and curricular activities, is the acceptance of special needs children into a stable learning environment.
In a society where the disabled children are easily isolated, Oni who has a strong Christian background discovered a practice called ‘Infusion’ that allows her to have two or three disabled children in her school. From the dyslexic to autistic children, Oni brings them all under the same umbrella with the aim of promoting love and acceptance of these ones at an early stage. But, this simple act of humanity would nearly cost her dream.
“Almost as soon as we started, it almost ended horrible because then, people started labelling me as that school for the need of special children. This society itself is not ready to accept that these children are actually regular children with disability and so I had to rethink my preposition. Parents will bring their children with disability to my school and send others to another school.
“I didn’t think of it as a problem. I felt I have the calling to look after these ones and maybe that’s why I do it, but then even people in the nursery arm of my school wanted to leave the disability/challenged child with me and take the one that was without disability to another school. It didn’t make sense, so I had to make some very harsh decisions and I had to tell some of them that you know if you’re taking one, you take all. Don’t leave the challenged child with me because I am not a special needs school.
“So I had to go and re-brand myself and now what I would say is, if you want to bring a child that has a challenge and the child has siblings in primary school you have to bring the children in. It has to be a school of preference for all your children or none of them. I think that has allowed us to work better.”
For the children who have to share class with these ones, Oni has likewise taught them to love and embrace them.
“I find out that my children are more accepting of them, they don’t see them as strange. In the early days I used to have to tell them of different stories on how God made all of us, and that God loves all of us, and that the special child is the luckier child because God is not going to hold that child accountable for his actions because he might not be able to process things like they are, so what they needed to do was to be their friend.”
Oni recalls a particular autistic child who nobody believed could talk because of his nature.
“I had an autistic child in primary school then. His parents never admitted that he was but I couldn’t label him that but he did show the sign to all. When he came in he couldn’t sit on a chair, he couldn’t even stay in the classroom. I had to employ somebody to follow him wherever he went and after one term he was able to enter the class.”
She continued: “My greatest joy till today is the day I drove into school and all the children in his class ran to my car excited, because for the first time this boy had come to school after maybe almost two terms and he went to everybody and he told them their names. Up until that time they couldn’t touch him, they couldn’t even go near him, he sat in his corner.
“His therapist came from the Children Development Centre where he had been recommended to us and sat with him in the corner and his teacher would be in front teaching and the therapist would be working with him. For the first time he included his classmates, he admitted that they were his friends.
“All along he had been watching. He would match face and name but he never used it. That day they didn’t do any work, even when I walked in, he said my name and I said ‘you know me?’ He replied yes. Everybody was shocked. When he left in primary 6 he sat for exams and he passed. Today he’s in a university in America”, Oni narrated.
Now in its 18th year, the school will be moving on to its permanent residence later in the year. A lover of arts and jazz music, the pupils usually hold a recital and a concert at the end of the year. The recital was held in the month of May where the students dazzled their parents and audience with their performances.
There are also plans to introduce a Mandarin and German class to the pupils in order to boost their knowledge of international languages. Already, indigenous languages are taught in the school. Despite its growth, Oni has no intention of starting a secondary school any time soon. She believes her strength lies in children.
IT IS WRONG FOR PARENTS TO THINK THAT TEACHERS CAN DEAL WITH EVERY PROBLEM OR DIG UP EVERY PROBLEM THAT A CHILD HAS. IT TAKES ACTIVE PARENTS, SOMEONE WHO HAS INTUITION AND PERCEPTION ON WHAT SHE IS LOOKING FOR ON HER CHILD’S EDUCATION TO BE ABLE TO SAY ONE SYSTEM IS GOOD AND ONE SYSTEM IS BAD