Straight from the Heart of...
Sharmila Jois Vellal
The adventures of Alice, not in wonderland!!
When I decided to become a special educator, it was not a dream that I conceived, it was not a path that was inspired and it definitely was not life leading me towards it. After my Master’s degree, it happened to be the only diploma course available for a year which I could complete along with work experience. Like Alice, most Special Educators are clueless of the life they are about to embark. We, like Alice, follow the Rabbit with the red coat into the unknown thinking it’s just a rabbit, what bad can happen? The Rabbit with Red coat in our life is the Diploma course which is made easy to attain in the beginning. As the course goes deeper, so does the burrow. We go deeper and deeper into the course and not even realize the world we have entered. By the time we realize we are in too deep, it's too late as there is no going back.
Just like Alice, all Special Educators are clueless of the role they are supposed to embark. “You are here to kill the Jabberwockey” they say to Alice, the Jabberwockey in our life happens to be the system/ society/ prejudices which do not accept differences. “How can I, I am just a little girl!”, says Alice, How can we Says the Special Educator, they merely took on the Special Educator’s role because of flexible work hours and contained work commitment which does not keep them away from their home. But then every personality you meet on the way tells you that your purpose in life in bigger than what you perceived it to be. The reluctant Spl Eds move ahead in their journey as they perceive that time and effort they put in is still under their control.
We meet various White and Red queens in our lives and we are expected to take sides. The white queens being the parents of Special needs students and the Red queen being the school management. Unfortunately, this is the only part of the journey as Spl ed, I wish was like that of the fairy tale. I wish there was right and wrong sides. It gets little complex in real life, just because the Red queen has big head does not mean she is cruel, there is past that made her life that. And as Special Ed, we know the only way ahead for our students is to work along with both White and Red queen side by side, in harmony with each other. “off with the head” says the Red queen, unlike the wonderland, the future of Special needs students won’t be replaced magically. Years of effort and army of people behind the special needs child, all wasted with one small phrase “ off with the head.”
We see the plight of our students, struggling to be accepted and merely wanting the privileges that every other peer of theirs are given. Whilst the White queen and the red queen fight out, the citizens of Wonderland take cover, just like that, our students struggle to keep their head above the water. When such a scene is front who choses to be an observer. Unknowingly, Alice explores both the territory to see how best she can support the new friends she made. We special Eds very quickly begin to push the boundaries drawn for our students. “ I am not crazy. My reality is different from yours.”, says the Cheshire Cat to Alice. We see the different reality, we love it, we enjoy it and we want to keep the reality they see intact as it is different but beautiful. Soon we realise that what we are doing is just support on the surface, we need to dig deep, stretch out our creativeness to the maximum. “ I have been shrunk, stretched, scratched and stuffed into a teapot,” yells Alice. As special educator we begin take on roles for the benefit of our students, we try to be “muchier, to bring back student’s muchness”.
Alice gathers herself when she is just about to slay the Jabberwocky by recalling six impossible things that she can do everyday and starts to recall those six impossible things. Special educators also needs to take time to check what is impossible to them, while we think back we realise that there have been many things that we once thought impossible but we pushed ourselves to achieve it.
“There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter.”
by Sharmila Jois Vellal
Co-Founder, Eka.
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