Archive for the ‘Special Needs’ Category
27 March 2006
Education for special needs
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Special Needs.
It’s a pity that despite the stated intentions of our Education Ministry to promote ‘world-class’ education, innovation and progress are not its best-known traits. For instance, homeschoolers in the country have resigned to any headway in discussing the merits of alternative education and seeking for accommodation in the present national system. In fact we have stopped pursuing dialogue. Compulsory education is the 800lb gorilla that is being fed a diet of race and politics, rendering it unresponsive to alternatives that challenge policies. So, how to talk?
Take the issue of facilities for children with special needs. While the government insists that children with special needs should be enrolled in conventional schools, very, very few schools have trained/qualified special needs teachers or facilities to be of any help. Some years ago, one mother I know went from meeting to meetings with the Minister himself seeking permission to enroll her autistic child in an international school, only to be turned down – this in spite of supporting medical reports and the fact that the international school (generally closed to locals by law) had the necessary resources her child needed.
And to this day, parents intending to homeschool have been rejected for no reason but that it’s the law (how some parents resist official decree is another story for another time). Yet, homeschoolers constantly make the headlines, even here in Malaysia. The most recent being Yao-ban Chan (see March 11 post) whose family, by the way, is no longer resident in the country.
Now we have math whiz Adi Putra, the seven-year old kid who fascinated everyone with his 12th grade mathematical ability. His parents dutifully sent him to a conventional school amidst great fanfare and pledges from the Education Ministry who promised support in cash and kind – you know, the usual platitudes. But he’s one sad unhappy kid.
On Friday, papers reported that Adi had been cutting classes because he was bored. To his parents’ consternation, Adi has been threatened with expulsion.
The parents of the seven-year-old boy have received show-cause letters from his school, SK Jalan Matang Buluh in Bagan Serai, warning them that he could be expelled for cutting classes too often.
His mother Serihana Elias, a former teacher, said her son was reluctant to go to school because he was bored with the basic syllabus of reading, writing and counting (mengira) laid down by the Education Ministry.
Adi Putra, who could read newspapers by the age of four, had told his mother that he would prefer studying at a school like Sekolah Islam Antarabangsa in Kuala Lumpur.
What was the school thinking?
Anyway, there’s good news for Adi finally. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin said yesterday: “The ministry has organised some programmes for him but we are not forcing anyone to do it. If his father wants him to change schools, I have no problems with that. Just send in the application and I will approve it.”
That’s commendable. It’s a concession that’s reluctantly made, apparently, if you read what Perak Education Department director Mohammed Zakaria Mohd Noor had to say (Adi comes from Perak). The department director was reported to have said they would have “preferred Adi Putra to complete his national primary school curriculum so that he could become a well-rounded individual.”
You know what they say about schools dumbing down on real education? It’s true, and it’s happening. Here.
19 January 2006
Autistic Savant exhibits in NY
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Special Needs.
I had previously posted about 12-year-old Malaysian autistic savant Yeak Ping Lian so it was good to read that he’s in NY participating in an exhibition, Autistic Savant Artworks: Don’t ‘dis’ the Ability at the Henry Gregg Gallery in Brooklyn on Saturday. Ping Lian’s work is being shown together with 2 other well known autistic savant artists Richard Wawro of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Iranian-born Christophe Pillault of Olivet, France.
Autism educator and networker Dr Lawrence Becker of Creative Learning Environments, Austin, Texas, praised the trio saying they embodied the “quality and persistence of the human spirit.”
I was going to say that ‘persistence’ was also a quality that Ping Lian’s mom possessed in spades, because she believed in him enough to put her own interest second to her child’s. Ping Lian could never quite fit in conventional schools so his mother Sarah Lee had him homeschooled, supplemented by additional special needs tuition, and especially art.
22 December 2005
Whiz kid
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Special Needs.
Adi Putra Abdul Ghani, a six-year-old mathematics prodigy from Perak is drawing attention from government types. Minister of Education Datuk Seri Hishammuddin is impressed. “He sat on my chair just now. He looked so comfortable there that I started to worry that I may lose my job to this brainy boy,” joked the Minister.
The boy’s father Abdul Ghani Abdul Wahid is a Tenaga Nasional Berhad officer while mother Seri Hana Ilias teaches English in a school. News reports said Adi who was taught at home (he was never enrolled in a kindergarten is what they mean) surprised everyone with his grasp of algebra, trigonometry and indices. Meanwhile the Terengganu State government announced that it was adopting Adi, and that educational expenses and training programme of the math genius would be borne by the State government.
But what caught my eye was what Hishamuddin said next.
According to Hishammuddin the ministry was looking into ways to promote a more flexible education system which could be equally accessed by all students regardless of their social backgrounds. “We don’t want to see any students in rural areas, who are poor, handicapped or smart like Adi Putra, to be marginalised or deprived of access to education,” he said.
Although I suspect homeschooling was not on the minister’s mind when he talked about a flexible education system, wouldn’t it be great if the MOE start looking at it as an option – and not just for rural kids?
7 February 2005
Ping Lian comes into his own
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Special Needs.
Recently the Star (Metro) carried an encouraging story about 11-year old Yeak Ping Lian, Malaysia’s own autistic savant. Ping Lian is autistic and ADHD whose artistic talents have just come to light. He is homeschooled and has recently been added to the Savant Profiles of the Wisconsin Medical Society website of University of Wisconsin Medical School. That’s where internationally recognised expert on savant syndrome Dr Darold A Treffert is attached to.
Visit Ping Lian’s website and gallery here. I’ve been told by Pam of Calvary Life Ministries that the boy and his family attends Calvary Church. Read about Ping Lian and other extraordinary autistic savants at the terrific Wisconsin Medical Society website. More about Dr Treffert who advised on the Dustin Hoffman movie The Rain Man, here.
Ping Lian only started homeschooling when it became apparent that conventional schools couldn’t handle him. Tragically, authorities still insist that differently-abled kids stay in school under the new mandatory education act (compulsory for the first 6 years, since 2003) even when trained personnel and facilities aren’t readily available. But they’re beginning to relent – exemptions are now given to medically certified children to homeschool on application to the Ministry of Education. (Guess where that puts ‘normal’ kids who want to homeschool for no better reason than sheer conviction?)
I appreciate that not all parents may be able to cope with a special child (even if I believe parents do it better) nor do they want to homeschool, but present resources certainly do not inspire confidence. So, what to do?
28 September 2004
Bullied to death
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Special Needs; school violence.
9-year old Martin (not his real name) has just been diagnosed with severe dyslexia; it was the severity that surprised his parents. His aversion to letters and words, his inability to read or want to read had his parents stumped, and at first I too thought it was merely an issue of learning readiness. Sure we’d all like every boy and girl to read and write, appreciate Shakespeare, but we’re simply not all the same. And we needn’t be, too.
But Martin is doing just fine if you ask me. His parents are homeschooling him and three other kids, and I have always thought they were among some of the better-behaved kids I have ever met. His parents are a little perplexed of course, and who wouldn’t, when professionals like Martin’s child psychologist suggests that school would do him good. Martin needs interaction, ‘socialisation,’ where he can build his self-esteem, so his parents were told.
Now, this I don’t understand.
Schools can be one of the most hurtful places for a child who’s different: if you’re slow, you’re tagged ‘dumb’ and if you’re clever, you’re a nerd or a show-off. Haven’t we heard enough about kids who were bullied out of their wits in schools? Have we forgotten Columbine?
Recently, the papers reported a suicide pact between two young girls in England. One survived, but 13-year old Laura Rhodes who died left a 1,500-page letter detailing her anguish at being bullied and teased because she was overweight. Laura’s parents in deciding to release the letter said: “The reason that we want people to read Laura’s story is that we want them to understand how demoralised, belittled, and helpless a bullied child feels.”
Laura saw herself as “ugly and worthless.” In one especially painful passage she wrote: “I moved through the people trying to ignore their nasty comments: ‘Oh my God look at the sight of her.’ ‘Yeah I know, she’s a dyke too.’ I had this every morning, lunchtime and the end of the day.”
I’m happy for Martin because he won’t need to put up with all that. I’m really glad he’s being homeschooled.