She looked deep in thought always. She was sad on most days .She looked older for our class third grade. Must be the trails she was put through. Her head had a recently shaved look . Her parents must have visited the temple praying for her and offered her hair in faith. She was a kind soul sitting in the bench behind. Gradually as the new grade year progressed by a month, we realised that she lagged behind in her home work. She spoke to us with a tremble in her smile. Always hesitant but as conversation progressed her speeches were lengthy and drawn out. She had a worn out and unkempt look always. Her uniform button was never fixed properly . She kept fidgeting with it regularly and it had seen a few years from the looks of it. She was financially poor too in the bargain called life. She always inspired sympathy in us but as children we were prone to laugh too when she made weird actions or spoke with an innocent reticence. She was a different package from all of us. We saw only ignorance from normal behavior and a sympathetic attraction towards her. She was helpful and She didn't make a fuss to eat like most of us. Other things I genuinely dont recall given the tender years we were in . I was only eight. She must have been eight too.
We people as parents or teachers never understand the tenderness of any young age easily as we pile lofty expectations on our children or students. Mine was one of the best schools in our town. They taught us good behavior, the interesting moral science classes were always special to me, teachers were strict but most of them awe inspiring, but sadly not all. She was a testament to the other side of teacher behavior gone bad. Everyday as the particular teachers arrived and her note book was checked , her notebook was flung on her face. Every day she had to run around our row of benches to avoid getting the repeated raps on the scale. Her clumsiness provoked laughter and fear among the other children. Loads of pity too. But what could we have done as we were children and we were just reacting and feeling relieved that we weren't the one being bogged down in spirit and lashed repeatedly with physical and psychological unkindness . We just made sure we did our homework. I was a helpful kid but I genuinely do not remember helping her with her homework. But I was a naughty kid with the other children making jokes and playing pranks on my friends and bench mates. I do not remember doing so with her. To think I sometimes laughed too with the other children as someone cracked jokes at her is punishment enough to feel guilty . She got beaten daily for her lethargy and wrong answers by few of the teachers. One teacher used to call us near the bench and pinch us on our stomach hidden from the other children's view but as our eyes teared up silently everyone knew what was happening. She got it regularly than most. And the experience of watching her walk inch by inch towards the table for the inevitable was terrorising to say the least. I remember getting it too for that was really a painful experience and to think she had such an experience on most days I feel bad and don't know why but a little guilty too. This is the projection of an eight year olds agonizing experience and very highly intelligent people might say that iam exaggerating. Whatever the intensity of this experience,I didn't need many years in my life to understand that she was a kid with a learning disability.
Must be I realised this when I recalled the experiences of that age sometime when I was nineteen to my friends in college or met someone like her. Something struck me as I think of this now. All those teachers who bet her or treated her carelessly were more than 20 years of age most assuredly. But then why didn't they understand. Must be they were the ones who were truly ignorant. Not that little girl. We were mercilessly trolled when we got my head shaved by the boys in our class . I remember it especially as she got trolled for it by my classmates and I remember her smile too . If I can remember her smile inspite of the overwhelming teary history she must be really a strong soul. She smiled innocently. I got my head shaved 9 times by the time I was eight so I was periodically trolled but I dont think I minded it. Similarly, She never got angry with any of us is something I remember too. She never lashed out at us for being the cause of our amusement. She laughed through most of our student interactions and pranks. The light that burst through from inside of her was real and all of us liked her .
Inspite of these bad experiences with some teachers I grew up to be a teacher's pet in every school I studied and still I love most of them for what they taught me and for their care. Teachers are an enormous part of my emotional growth . I have loved each of them and have a personal equation with most of them. Their true kind natures overcame my fear in every instance whenever i hesitated to approach them.
Coming back to that little soul who looked lost and kind most of the time; Why didn't the teachers understand or hadn't we evolved so much as kind beings in that century; precisely the eighties and early nineties of the twentieth century. We had children with learning disability in most schools and special children too. They were evolved enough to permit special children in most schools. They were evolved enough to treat them with equality and helped them develop a self respect in a harsh environment. Some fought and came out normal . Some didn't come out unscathed as bitterness latched on to them given the frequent jibes and insults and unsympathetic comparisons to their peers in age.
Are we evolved now? Ninety nine percentage of schools do not permit special children or do not wnat non performing children to continue their academics there. They are just pretending to be sympathetic by letting them stay home safer with their parents or in a special school which can give them special education. What is so special about being left out in this world? What is so special about this segregation ? When we want the special kids to understand social behavior shouldn't we want our normally developing kids to learn compassion and mete out normal human treatment to a special kid. They do not need to feel special. They just need to feel included and merge into a crowd. We haven't evolved . We have regressed in our intelligence when we tell ourselves that we have progressed in our kindness towards them.
When will we evolve? Inspite of those cruel happenings in her childhood I somehow believe that that little girl from my childhood will be living a self assured life as in the end her kind heart will surely have helped her overcome every bad experience and it would have helped bolster her fighting spirit to stay upright. In a time when our teachers are instructed to be kind and avoid too much of moral science in class and be as impersonal as possible to the students I think it is the right time to bring in more special children into every classroom and teach all children the need for inclusion and let our children evolve in kindness and genuine intelligence as a society. It will be a struggle for our kids but somehow they will have the strength to overcome it . Iam happy to say that all the special educators and teachers I have been lucky enough to interact with teach the children to fight hard, work harder, laugh at themselves and try their best to help overcome their shyness . This shyness or hesitance is mostly a doing of our indifferent outer world rather than their own inhibitions. Instead of employing shadow teachers to keep a kind eye on these kids the normal school teachers should be taught in their institutions to be kinder and inclusive to these kids without treating them with indifference or sympathy. Its compassion on a different level that we need to learn as a society. Can we start learning the same from our blessed kids? They will teach more to the world than what they might learn. To speak or to express yourself or to earn enormously is not real success. We all understand that at some stage in life . But we all want our kids to learn to fit in this unfit world and be independent without any emotional or financial help from this regressed world . Might be growing violence in this world can be changed too by teaching the future men and women compassion at an early stage through inclusion. Shall we for a change let our kids teach the world ? Shall we take sympathy on the world and let our kids try and bond with the others though we know our kids might get hurt a little in the process .
Who are we to restrict them from a normal life . Who are we to put them inside the four walls and let them starve for human interaction. We just brought them here. They have a right to live too. We can be protective with a difference. Finally I would like to say what needs to be accepted universally.
They are the evolved ones.
We all know that somehow they are emotionally stronger than us and in some universal plane more understanding of what really happens in the world that cannot be seen that is behind our view and beyond our understanding and capability . There is a science they know that is beyond our capability . They have a special sense to be at peace with the world when we struggle our whole life to be at peace with the world .
That little girl I remember was at peace with the world no matter what. She will surely be now too I believe.
We people as parents or teachers never understand the tenderness of any young age easily as we pile lofty expectations on our children or students. Mine was one of the best schools in our town. They taught us good behavior, the interesting moral science classes were always special to me, teachers were strict but most of them awe inspiring, but sadly not all. She was a testament to the other side of teacher behavior gone bad. Everyday as the particular teachers arrived and her note book was checked , her notebook was flung on her face. Every day she had to run around our row of benches to avoid getting the repeated raps on the scale. Her clumsiness provoked laughter and fear among the other children. Loads of pity too. But what could we have done as we were children and we were just reacting and feeling relieved that we weren't the one being bogged down in spirit and lashed repeatedly with physical and psychological unkindness . We just made sure we did our homework. I was a helpful kid but I genuinely do not remember helping her with her homework. But I was a naughty kid with the other children making jokes and playing pranks on my friends and bench mates. I do not remember doing so with her. To think I sometimes laughed too with the other children as someone cracked jokes at her is punishment enough to feel guilty . She got beaten daily for her lethargy and wrong answers by few of the teachers. One teacher used to call us near the bench and pinch us on our stomach hidden from the other children's view but as our eyes teared up silently everyone knew what was happening. She got it regularly than most. And the experience of watching her walk inch by inch towards the table for the inevitable was terrorising to say the least. I remember getting it too for that was really a painful experience and to think she had such an experience on most days I feel bad and don't know why but a little guilty too. This is the projection of an eight year olds agonizing experience and very highly intelligent people might say that iam exaggerating. Whatever the intensity of this experience,I didn't need many years in my life to understand that she was a kid with a learning disability.
Must be I realised this when I recalled the experiences of that age sometime when I was nineteen to my friends in college or met someone like her. Something struck me as I think of this now. All those teachers who bet her or treated her carelessly were more than 20 years of age most assuredly. But then why didn't they understand. Must be they were the ones who were truly ignorant. Not that little girl. We were mercilessly trolled when we got my head shaved by the boys in our class . I remember it especially as she got trolled for it by my classmates and I remember her smile too . If I can remember her smile inspite of the overwhelming teary history she must be really a strong soul. She smiled innocently. I got my head shaved 9 times by the time I was eight so I was periodically trolled but I dont think I minded it. Similarly, She never got angry with any of us is something I remember too. She never lashed out at us for being the cause of our amusement. She laughed through most of our student interactions and pranks. The light that burst through from inside of her was real and all of us liked her .
Inspite of these bad experiences with some teachers I grew up to be a teacher's pet in every school I studied and still I love most of them for what they taught me and for their care. Teachers are an enormous part of my emotional growth . I have loved each of them and have a personal equation with most of them. Their true kind natures overcame my fear in every instance whenever i hesitated to approach them.
Coming back to that little soul who looked lost and kind most of the time; Why didn't the teachers understand or hadn't we evolved so much as kind beings in that century; precisely the eighties and early nineties of the twentieth century. We had children with learning disability in most schools and special children too. They were evolved enough to permit special children in most schools. They were evolved enough to treat them with equality and helped them develop a self respect in a harsh environment. Some fought and came out normal . Some didn't come out unscathed as bitterness latched on to them given the frequent jibes and insults and unsympathetic comparisons to their peers in age.
Are we evolved now? Ninety nine percentage of schools do not permit special children or do not wnat non performing children to continue their academics there. They are just pretending to be sympathetic by letting them stay home safer with their parents or in a special school which can give them special education. What is so special about being left out in this world? What is so special about this segregation ? When we want the special kids to understand social behavior shouldn't we want our normally developing kids to learn compassion and mete out normal human treatment to a special kid. They do not need to feel special. They just need to feel included and merge into a crowd. We haven't evolved . We have regressed in our intelligence when we tell ourselves that we have progressed in our kindness towards them.
When will we evolve? Inspite of those cruel happenings in her childhood I somehow believe that that little girl from my childhood will be living a self assured life as in the end her kind heart will surely have helped her overcome every bad experience and it would have helped bolster her fighting spirit to stay upright. In a time when our teachers are instructed to be kind and avoid too much of moral science in class and be as impersonal as possible to the students I think it is the right time to bring in more special children into every classroom and teach all children the need for inclusion and let our children evolve in kindness and genuine intelligence as a society. It will be a struggle for our kids but somehow they will have the strength to overcome it . Iam happy to say that all the special educators and teachers I have been lucky enough to interact with teach the children to fight hard, work harder, laugh at themselves and try their best to help overcome their shyness . This shyness or hesitance is mostly a doing of our indifferent outer world rather than their own inhibitions. Instead of employing shadow teachers to keep a kind eye on these kids the normal school teachers should be taught in their institutions to be kinder and inclusive to these kids without treating them with indifference or sympathy. Its compassion on a different level that we need to learn as a society. Can we start learning the same from our blessed kids? They will teach more to the world than what they might learn. To speak or to express yourself or to earn enormously is not real success. We all understand that at some stage in life . But we all want our kids to learn to fit in this unfit world and be independent without any emotional or financial help from this regressed world . Might be growing violence in this world can be changed too by teaching the future men and women compassion at an early stage through inclusion. Shall we for a change let our kids teach the world ? Shall we take sympathy on the world and let our kids try and bond with the others though we know our kids might get hurt a little in the process .
Who are we to restrict them from a normal life . Who are we to put them inside the four walls and let them starve for human interaction. We just brought them here. They have a right to live too. We can be protective with a difference. Finally I would like to say what needs to be accepted universally.
They are the evolved ones.
We all know that somehow they are emotionally stronger than us and in some universal plane more understanding of what really happens in the world that cannot be seen that is behind our view and beyond our understanding and capability . There is a science they know that is beyond our capability . They have a special sense to be at peace with the world when we struggle our whole life to be at peace with the world .
That little girl I remember was at peace with the world no matter what. She will surely be now too I believe.
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