Special education.

Basically, special education takes care of the special needs that may arise due to various physical, mental, emotional disabilities. The wikipedia entry would guide you more about the details of the disabilities and provisions made for the same in various parts of the world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_education)

At Umang, we had children of disabilities like carebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, ADHD, multiple disabilities etc. First month, I only tried to absorb. There were about 180 kids, divided into various classes like: Nursery, Jr. Transition, Sr. Transition etc. till 10th in the academic section in addition to Pre-vocational and Vocational sections. Kids with different disabilities worked together in one class, and to my amazement helped the teachers when it came to difficult students.

First thing I noticed was the amount of personal attention provided. Even with two helpers, a teacher has to always keep an eye over all students, always keep their sitting posture in check, always make sure they have something to do (specially autistic and ADHD kids, as they grow restless when idle). The curriculum is very flexible, adjusted for every student's special needs, to allow him to seek the maximum he can. The teaching methods use a lot of visual aids, a lot of repetition of same lesson in different ways (Reinforcement is the key!) and most importantly, a lot of one-on-one sessions. The physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions (wherever required) are regular part of the time-table. And extra-curricular activities never seem to cease with some or the other theatre/movie/dance/music/painting /trips etc. always going on. And by seeing, how much confidence and joy they get from each of these exposures, you'll only wish for more.

It was here that I understood, children learn better with hands than with words. If a lesson isn't interesting, you'll get a gaze that will say something like "What is wrong with you!!". Plus you need to build a relationship with the kid, that you would never until you start knowing 'their language'. Most kids have speech problems over there, ranging from mild to severe. It's very tough to make them believe you can possibly teach them, when you're struggling to decipher what they're trying to say. I remember feeling miserable, when I just couldn't 'get it', and then the class-teacher would walk in and solve the mystery in seconds. Not that, it was condescending, it was more like rescue operation in time, but it left me feeling mostly highly inadequate.

Well, I worked on that. You had to give kids time to accept you. Once they do, they help you in accepting that there are certain things you're not good at, which you thought you were :) Like, even though you read the theory, you don't know shit about disability; though you're good with kids, there might be many kids who would find you repulsive at first; though you tried 10 different ways, it still didn't register in their brains. While growing as a person at Umang, my idea of education and respect for children as beings who end up educating you in return, also grew.

More I understand kids, more I see that they live in a world of their own. And you don't always have to destroy it, to feed them facts about your world. There's a way to gain entry into their world, and juxtapose yours and let them decide whether to fuse them together or not!

I'm not finished yet, will keep writing pages from those Jaipur days, in coming posts.