Thu, Oct 25, 2007 page2

• FEATURE: Special education sadly lacking: parents

  CONFLICT While parents complain of the lack of government support and qualified caretakers and teachers, instructors say overprotective parents can also be a burden

  • By Jenny W. Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  She was in diapers until four, took her first step at six and finally learned how to fasten the Velcro on her shoes at age 30. Her next goal -- learning how to button her shirt within the next two years.

  "Being a parent of a severely handicapped daughter, you learn to have a smaller appetite," said Huang, smiling, while fingering her grown daughter's crew cut hair.

  Quoting the Bible, Huang said for everything there is a time and a season: Her daughter's timetable might be slower than most people, but that's the way it is.

  Huang was not always so optimistic about her daughter's condition. When the doctor said her daughter has multiple disabilities and severe mental retardation, she was livid.

  "I was mad at myself not taking better care of myself when I was pregnant. I was mad at the doctor, thinking he must have hurt my daughter during delivery. I was even mad at my husband for having bad genes," she said.

  The anger she felt was nothing compared to the frustration she experienced battling the special education system, Huang said.

  "Because the teachers were unqualified, they didn't know how to teach my daughter. They either left her alone in the corner or demanded that I transfer her," Huang said.

  "I fought with the teachers for years, but the law was not on my side," she said.

  The Constitution supports universal education for all Taiwanese. In 1997, the Ministry of Education passed the Special Education Act, detailing the rights of special needs students and their parents, as well as the obligations of caretakers and teachers.

  Ten years after its passage, the act badly needs to be revised but the government does not appear to be in a hurry.

  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), who was stricken with polio as a child, said that amendments to the law had not even made it to the Executive Yuan, and the ministry has said it would take about two months for it to finish the proposal.

  Wang added that the problem with the special education system was not so much the law as the lack of talent to execute the law.

  Deng Shu-yuan (鄧淑媛), director of the Little Suns Parents of Special Needs Children Association and a mother of a special needs child, shared Huang's views, saying many special education teachers, especially unqualified ones, ignore the requests of parents and teach whatever they want, regardless of the child's cognitive level.

  "Parents of special needs children have very humble wishes. I know my daughter will never become a doctor or an accountant, I just want her to be able to go to the bathroom by herself and to lead a dignified life," Deng said.

  She said that the law does not penalize unfit teachers.

  Even though the ministry encourages parents to report bad teachers, "who dares criticize teachers when our children are in their hands?" she said.

  Responding to comments that teachers of special education carry a heavy load, Deng said she thought a majority claim they are "overworked" to justify incompetence and laziness.

  Parents like Deng are a teacher's greatest blessing and worst nightmare, said Tai, a special education teacher who declined to give her full name, saying she might get into trouble with administration.

  "It is great to have parents who care, but when their demands become unrealistic, miscommunication often occurs," Tai said.

  Tai teaches a class of six low-functioning, multiple-disability children in Hsinchu County.

  She said that while some teachers were lazy and use special education as a springboard to regular education, they were definitely not the norm because the law prohibits special education teachers from jumping ship.

  Chen, another special education teacher who also refused to give her full name, said she fully empathized with the parents.

  After all, they have to be with the child forever, while "I only have them a few hours each day," said Chen, who teaches in Taoyuan.

  But given a choice, Chen said she would rather deal with uncaring parents than parents who care too much.

  "Parents who think they know what's best often end up stifling their children's development," Chen said.

  One father who could not accept that his son was autistic and mentally disabled demanded that his son learn physics instead of vocational skills, she said.

  As a result of the intense pressure, the once docile child has turned violent -- to the extent of harming himself, she said.

  Communication is the key to solving conflicts between parents and teachers, and the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability hopes to be the link between the two parties, the group's secretary-general Lin Hui-fang (林慧芳) said.

  While some teachers are so unskilled they cannot tell one disability from another, some parents also exert unreasonable demands on the teachers, she said.

  "Teachers must communicate and train parents how to reinforce what the child has learned in their daily life," Lin said.

  "Both sides have the child's best interest in mind, they just need to learn to communicate with each other," Lin said.
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