How the school official’s weighing the all the students, participating in the competitions made all the, difference, and she’d realized, that winning the competition is NOT as important as allowing every student to participate in the performance…translated…
The world, being a huge stage, other than humans, there are, other species that played their, individual, vital roles; the camels, the oases of the deserts, the dogs, as guards for our, front doors, the trees, offering us the shades………with every living thing all in its, right positions, then the world is, interesting enough, but, is this how the show is, always, performed? Think, if the turtles don’t want to stay in the cool oceans, and wanted to climb trees, what would that be, like?
Awhile ago, the square dancing troupes were invited to an elderly association to put on a show, there were only limited number of dancers who can fit onstage, so the instructor asked for our willingness, suddenly, everyone presented her/himself onstage, there’s that fellow student who’d missed out on many of our sessions, she also, stepped up.
illustration from UDN.com
A fellow classmate whispered to me, “how can we put her into our routines, she couldn’t even, dance!” I’d answered her, “it’s only a performance, not a professional show, so long as everyone has fun!”, “But she will mess with the entire presentation, we will become the laughing stock……”, she’d mumbled, stayed firm to her, persistent beliefs.
Suddenly, my thought returned back to many years ago, when there was the dancing competition hosted by the county, and the competitors are by the classes. One of the classes performed outstandingly, with the championship trophy in the bag already, and yet, there was a special needs student with multiple handicaps, do we include her into the performance? I’d asked, “Did she train with you guys in the class?”, “Will she be willing to compete?”, “if she sits out, will it affect the classroom’s ability to participate in the competitions?”, the instructor nodded yes, she’d made the decisions for me then.
At the time, what I didn’t ask was “how well can she perform”, as everyone had that question, so why ask? Actually, I was, struggling at the time, caught between fighting for honor and fighting for my own morale in education, and ultimately, I’d kept that bottom line in education—everybody gets equal chances at education, nobody gets banned from participating in the competitions.
That time, I’d gone with the classes to the competitions. This class with the special needs student, soon as they entered onstage, they were all very, spirited, especially, the special needs student who’d followed behind the reset of the class, she’d run around, leapt up and down the stage; she’d from time to time, caught up with the steps, and when she’d grown tired of dancing, she’d, squatted down to rest a bit, which drew all the judges’ attention onto her, and she’d made the audience laugh too.
This was what I never expected, I’d felt heated in my cheeks, my heart was about to leapt out of my mouth then. I’d, blamed myself in private, “making this decision, I’d, caused the teacher’s and the students’ hard work in practice to get ruined, not only had I let the students down, it’d also, affected our school’s, performance………”, I’d felt, awful.
a video on incusion education of special needs student…from YouTube
As the students were done performing, the applauses came from the audience, the laughter resonated in my ears. I’d changed my thought immediately, what was I so worried about? The special needs student’s unique behavior, other than expressing her self perfectly, it’d also, entertained the audience, created the “punch line”, dissolving the nerves, besides, this was the only big scene she gets to attend before graduation, is this not, even meaningful than winning or, losing?
And now, it’s a similar situation, only that the roles switched to adult, and I’m even more certain, that I’d made the right call back then—to show respect to the individuality of the students’. Although there’s winning and losing in a competition I had to, rule out all factors that may, impact the final score, but I couldn’t, go against the rules of the competition! Otherwise, there’s no, honor in, winning, if there’s a “turtle” that wants to know what it’s like to climb the trees, how much courage would that, take? Not only should we be supportive, we must, offer these unique individuals the applauses, that way, there’s the higher expectations of performances being interesting in the stage structured by the, society.
And so, this is, the inclusion of a special needs student in the performance of the whole, class, and the school official made the right calls, to NOT preventing this special needs student to compete with the rest of the class, and she was too trapped by winning the competition from before, thinking that it will bring the school the glories, the honors, but gladly, she didn’t let all that go to her, head, and she’d set a good example for the society, by letting the special needs student perform with her classmates.
Mirroring the World 