OUR LOVE, YOUR WINGS
Though disparate in mental and physical development, disabled kids indeed possess hearts full of dreams and imagination, just like normal children. They, too, need love and care so that they can take wing and soar. Special education can be the key to a better and more self-confident life for handicapped children.
"I like playing football and swimming, and football is my favorite," said Sasha, a 14 year-old Russian boy who was suffering from brain paralysis.
Studying in a special education school, he would always follow his friends to play soccer in a club for the disabled. On the field, no one urges him to move fast, although he is indeed slow in passing the ball. His friends were nice enough to provide him with many opportunities to shoot.
"I come here three times a week, which makes me quite happy," the boy remarked while walking out of the field. Although his speech is somewhat slurred, Sasha likes to chat.
The boy's football coach Lisitsin said: "At the beginning, Sasha performed rather lousily in training and barely talked to his partners, yet this hasn't consumed his interest in the sport. After a year's training, things started to improve, and he is now heading in the right direction."
"When I grow up, I would like to be scientist committed to education research," Sasha announced.
Special education not only requires teachers to have skills in rehabilitation and psychology, it also demands them to instill confidence and social skills in disabled children. Scott is an autistic boy who has benefited from his teacher Charlene Carruthers' "smiling education."
Scott is a 13-year old student in Toronto Chapter 56, Canada. Whenever problems would arise, he would run without asking for help. Unlike many of his peers, Scott is receiving a trendy kind of special education, which brings him into regular classrooms.
After six months of integrated education, Scott finally got rid of his running habit and won the 2006 "Yes, I Can Student" Award, which serves to encourage a special education student who makes commendable progress in learning life skills like cooking and personal hygiene.
"Kids like to learn from their peers, including special education students. We hope every student can be well prepared so that they can live independently and confidently when they grow up."
Family factors are also playing a rather important role in promoting a successful special education. Surviving only by kidney dialysis, Yoichi Imai, a young local civil servant in Tokyo, Japan, has been afflicted with chronic nephritis since he was 8 years old. However, it is the love and care from his family and his environs that has encouraged him to keep on living despite his excruciating illness.
Sending him to a normal school and treating him as a normal kid, his mother Yoshiko would also take great care of her son by following the doctors' advice. "Mom has played a key role in pumping up my confidence to live on and succeed," Yoichi admits.
A LOT TO BE DONE
As the international community is now paying greater attention to handicapped children, a series of laws and regulations have been passed to protect the basic rights of disabled children.
There is a special class which is composed of 12 mentally retarded children in the College Albert Camus in Paris, France. The school authorities have stipulated a set of protective rules to guarantee these children's rights, including deciding on whether allowing these children to accept interviews.
"The procedures of applying for an interview aren't so complex. However, the interviewers have to be warranted by the parents of these kids if a video interview is demanded," Angers, the school's principal, explained. "We have to protect these kids by carrying out these regulations."
Nowadays, virtually all children with disabilities in the United States have access to free education under the public education system, which is guaranteed by law at both the federal and state levels. When a child in the United States is held eligible for special education by a child study committee, then authorities work with the child's parents to design an individualized education plan (IPE).
In China, the government has paid great attention to protecting the rights of disabled children, as was demonstrated by the related articles in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors. It has absorbed the education for handicapped kids into the general compulsory education system and actively promoted special education.
In Brazil, the rights to education for handicapped children are also guaranteed by law. Right now, there are 1,226 special education institutions, while many other universities and colleges have set up their own departments for the training of special education teachers. Public universities in Brazil also have to accept a certain amount of children with disabilities. According to the enrollment plan of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for 2011, 5 percent of the new students are disabled.
The Russian government has been promoting the idea of inclusive education, which demands that the funds delivered to regular schools with handicapped kids should not be less than what is devoted to special education institutions.
Though a lot has been accomplished in helping children with disabilities within the international community, we still shouldn't be overly optimistic or even complacent. UNICEF's recently released "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Child Protection" warns that the number of disabled children worldwide was increasing, since they were facing declining medical and educational opportunities.
Countries around the globe have to make additional efforts for the disabled children, to warm their hearts, heal their wounds and light their paths to the future. Thus, their success tomorrow would be the reward of our efforts today.
Special Report: Global News Day for Children
