Special education for the special ones

“Each child has unique skills, capabilities and dreams.”

The line above is quoted from Aamir Khan who played the role of Ram Shankar Nikumbh, an art teacher, in the 2007 film “Every Child is Special.”

Every child is special. Every child has his own set of skills and talents that he can develop and make use of in the future. Even children with special disabilities have the right to be educated in order discover these potentialities. This is the vision of the special education program of Tugbok Central Elementary School SPED Center or TCES SPED Center.

Before the SPED program was recognized in 2002, Mrs. Elena Maxey, a teacher, had to make a proposal. She was obliged to gather at least 10 students with special needs. She was able to gather 20, which paved way to the establishment of the program.

“I started as a volunteer, which was difficult because I did not receive any salary. This went on for a year.” Mrs. Maxey recounted. It was only in 2003 when she received her first remuneration for teaching.

The SPED program caters to fast learners (FL), hearing impaired (HI), and children with autism (CWA), learning disability (LD) and intellectual disability (ID). There are 85 pupils, all from ages 4 to 25. 12 of them are part of the mainstream, which means they are permitted to join regular students in some subjects given that their quizzes, assignments and other activities are modified in keeping with their special needs. Mainstream pupils can also graduate and enrol in
a regular high school just like every regular student.

To showcase and develop the skills and talents of their pupils, the program holds fun day every Friday. The government also shows support by conducting citywide and nationwide Olympics specifically designed for children with special disabilities.

One of the challenges the SPED program experiences is the lack of teachers. At present there are only 3 teachers with special education degrees to give proper instruction to all pupils enrolled in the program: Mrs. Lydia Piamonte, who specializes in instructing the HI; Mrs. Marialus Dalagan, who is assigned to the CWA; and Mrs. Elena Maxey, who spearheads all the other categories.

“It’s difficult to focus on all these children when you have other stuff to do and when there are only a few of you to do the teaching,” said Mrs. Piamonte, who also teaches other subjects to regular students.

With the growing number of pupils, the program is also short of classrooms. They are maximizing the space of two classrooms by dividing them according to the different categories.
An additional classroom was being constructed three years ago but the construction discontinued because of financial problems.

The SPED program is in need of learning materials as well that will help improve the skills of its pupils. The school’s remote location, as it is situated in Tugbok District, makes it difficult and time-consuming to acquire these materials.

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'Faith' or 'fake' healing?

(photo courtesy of shamanism)

In places where most people greatly rely on their faith in God, deception is a widespread occupation. Just like in the Philippines to be exact, faith healers or albularyos gain a quite huge sum of money for treating diseases through what they call “God’s grace.”

Faith healing is defined as a healing through spiritual means. American Cancer Society said in its article entitled “Faith Healing” that faith healing can come in various forms such as prayer, visit to a shrine or a strong belief to a supreme being.

Among all these forms, psychic surgery is the most disturbing. It is a procedure wherein the healer’s bare hands allegedly incise a certain part of the patient’s skin in order to remove pathological matter and backs it with meditation. After the procedure the incision instantly disappears like the skin was never incised before. It is said to be a miracle from God.

Several YouTube videos proved that psychic surgery is merely a trick. All you have to do is to prepare pieces of bacon, food coloring and fake blood. The trick is quite simple. The healer orders the patient to stare at the ceiling like he was staring at God while faking an incision through the skin by manipulating his hands on the affected area and showing the said to be tumor which is actually a piece of bacon. It is indeed a waste of money. According to Stephen Barrett in “Some Thoughts about Faith Healing,” several patients face serious injury after believing that the procedure healed them.

Other psychic surgeons make real incisions. And knowing that they perform it with their bare hands, it is in truth risky. Every bona fide medical practitioner knows that sterilized medical gloves should always be used in operations to avoid infection of the patient’s body.

Even the Holy Bible condemns faith healing. It was said in the third commandment of the Lord, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Faith healers, despite their strong faith in God, obviously violate this commandment for they are using God for financial purposes.

Whether faith healing is real or not, everyone must remember that healing comes from God. Any disease can be cured even without a medium. All you have to do is to believe in Him.