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Understanding Special People

I was sitting in class during my second semesterfcolJge at the local community

college. The professor was ;ftJHU"

syllabus and I was silently lisrening to the

requirements of the course. I heard the teacher talk about how we would be required to complete

twenty hours of observation at The School of Bright Promise. At that point, I just looked at this
as another requirement of the course that

I would need to complete in order to do well. We were

told that our hours would not strt until halfivay tlrough the semester which seemed like a long
time away.
Before I knew it, it was time for me to begin my observation hours at The School

of

B.ight Promise. The night before my first day of observation I began to think what it would
be

like. I felt that my experience would confirm the way I viewed the students

at the school -

unhappy. I always felt bad for students who had mental and physical handicaps. I could not
imagine my life with a disability like this. How sad it must be for them to not be able
to do the
things that a person without disabilities can do. While I felt that I would not enjoy this
experience, I knew I had to complete this requirement to pass the class. I decided to just get

it

over with.

I walked into the school and went straight to the principal's office

so that

I could be

placed in my room and meet the teacher. The secretary was extremely welcoming
and took me
to my classroom. The teacher was welcoming when I got there and introduced me to all
of the

students. The kids were excited to meet me and introduced themselves. I automatically started
to feel bad for the children. Some children where in whe$hairs and others couldn,t speak
at all
and had to point at picttres in a book to tell the teacher what they wanted.

I was excited that the

teacher and aids, along with the students, were happy to have me there but

I was still saddened

by the students disabilities.

After being with the students for roughly

students were not sad at all because of their

a week,

my whole mentality changed. These

disability. If anything, they seemed to be much

happier than "normal" students I had met. These sfudents accepted the way they were and
embraced

it. They seemed to not sweat the little things

and got excited over the smallest things.

I especially rcalizedthis after one particular experience I had. One of the girls in the class could
not walk on her own and was confined to a wheel chair for most of the day. Sometimes she
would be permitted to use a walker and walk to certain activities. An aid had to be with her at all
times to make sure she didn't

fall.

One day this

girl asked me to walk her to lunch

so that she

could show me how good she was getting at walking. The teacher said that would be fine so
agreed to walk her to

lunch. I had never

seen this

chair. I moved her walker over to her and

girl walk before she was always in her wheel

she grabbed

it

and slowly stood

follow behind her so that she could lead me to the lunch room. As

up.

She asked me to

she began to

walk down the

hall, my heart just strted to break. This was a sixteen year old girl that was staggering with the
aid of a walker to even walk a short distance. I put myself in her place and realized how sad I
would be if I couldn't walk let alone play sports or do any other physical activities. As all

of

these thoughts are racing through my head, this young girls turns her head and looks at me and
says

"{ow cool is this; I am doing it"! I smiled

at her and said "'Wow, you are doing so well".

This was proof that I should not feel bad for these students but leam from them. I leamed to not
sweat the little things in

life and appreciate what I have.

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This experience was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I am so thankful
that I was able to go into the schools for those twenty hours. I went in believing that I would just

feel bad for the students the entire time and wouldn't learn a whole

lot. Man was I wrong! I

learned a lot of skills needed to educate these students along with what the students were like.
learned how happy these students are and not to feel sorry for kids but to just embrace their

disability and treat them like you would any other person.