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SPED teacher laments facilities lack for autistic children
Last March 1, in her Learning and Innovation
column titled “OFWs: Are they really our heroes?,” Ms. Moje
Ramos-Aquino, FPM, wrote the following:
“Did you know that SPED (Special Education)
was authored by one of the first Mapa High Blue Falcon awardees, Dr.
Matilde Martin-Valdes , and was first conducted in Mapa High School?
Dr. Valdes single-handedly designed the curricula, syllabi and
bibliographies for 40 SPED courses including those on giftedness and
creativity at the masters and certificate degree levels and the
organization, administration and supervision of SPED programs. She
was instrumental in the enactment of R.A. 5250 passed in 1968 which
provided for a 10-year scholarship program for SPED teachers and
administrators all over the country. Her pioneering efforts resulted
in the organization of SPED programs and services including those
for the gifted and the mentally challenged in Asia.
“The downside is that after two years of
experience here, SPED teachers leave for gainful employment abroad
educating and developing gifted and mentally challenge students
instead of helping our own. This is how we deprive our country and
ourselves with the talents for becoming a better country with a
robust economy. When these special students grow up they are
undereducated and become a burden to their family instead of growing
up as fully contributing members of our society.
“We are not looking far, we want immediate
gratification from OFW remittances. Maybe, we need to make more
babies who will become our future OFWs. Sad thoughts.”
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I am a SPED teacher and I have been working with
CWA (Children with Autism) for the past six years. I don’t think
Ms. Ramos-Aquino has the right to put blame on us SPED teachers
because Filpino children with special needs are missing the
education and guidance of teachers like me because they have gone
abroad and become OFWs.
You have no idea how we feel and the pressure we
undergo in teaching these kids. Most of us who teach these kids have
Master’s Degrees. Who pays for our expenses? Nobody but us. Nobody
helps us. Most of us study while working. After we get the degree
how much do Philippine schools pay?
Are all Filipino parents doing their duty to
their special kids? No offense meant to parents, but most of those I
have dealt with tell us they are fully aware of their kids’
disability and have accepted them 100 percent but then later you
find out they have not fully accepted their children’s challenge.
We as teachers need the parents to have full acceptance of their
children’s disability because once they do this, then their kids
will have from them an extension of their education. They can give
them therapy in their own homes, which these kids need to be able to
grasp better what they are taught by us teachers in the classrooms.
Do you know that very few regular Philippine
schools know how to deal with special children? We have to fight for
these special children to be treated properly. We don’t get paid
doing this. We even do counseling free of charge to parents. It’s
not in the job description but all SPED teachers do that and more
for our special students’ sake.
I have worked in public and private schools but
there is only one school that made me feel like my work is being
appreciated. It’s a progressive school somewhere in Mandaluyong
accepting children with special needs, a certain limited number per
classroom.
Not everyone wants to be a SPED teacher. In our
field you have to have the passion and dedication to do the job or
you will not be effective and you will not last. These kids,
specially CWA, know the heart of each and every person around them.
They will respond according to how you feel for them.
Ms. Aquino, I love my job and yes I am planning
to get out of the country but not to leave for good. And this I know
goes also for some of my friends in this field. I am leaving to
become an OFW to earn more. But most importantly, I want to educate
myself more in this specialized field by taking up a Ph.D. in a
country where they can give me more inputs and expertise in Autism.
And I would like to attend seminars and conferences and be a
certified SPED therapist. And then I will come back here to put up a
school and or therapy center to serve and care for Filipino Children
with Special Needs.
It’s sad but the truth is we lack so much in
education, training, seminars and conferences that would really help
those in our field to improve and maybe become the world’s best in
SPED. We don’t even have books available for references. We have
to buy them through the internet and they cost a lot. SPED, Ma’am,
is a different field and very new as an education specialty in our
country.
It’s going to take years for Philippine
regular schools to really give the proper accommodation for kids
with special needs. And it’s a battle we in this field face. I
love my job and the kids I teach. This I know goes for all SPED
teachers. It’s a challenge to teach them but it’s a challenge we
all accept gladly as professionals.
Before making any comments on anybody I hope and
wish you will first make sure you know what hardships the people you
write about are facing and what’s actually happening on the
ground. Be fair in your writings. You have no idea what it’s like
to be a SPED Teacher.
“Teacher Lourdes”
Maria Lourdes Angeles Joven
Marialourdes1018@yahoo.com
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