Paper Example. a Career in Special Needs Education

In my elementary school, we shared a compound with a school for children with special needs. On my first day in school, I went out to the stadium and came across a child my age from the special needs unit. I was only three years old, and he also seemed to be just about my age. I tried to engage him in a conversation in vain. He tried talking to me, but whatever he said was not intelligible. Ignorant of his disability at my young age, I kept asking him to repeat what he said, but we could not communicate. The following day at playtime, I met the same boy and went to engage him, but our interaction was limited by communication, a breakdown that I did not understand at the time.

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That day when I went home, I told my mum about the child in the school who could not talk or hear because I was curious to know about how that is possible. It is then that my mum explained about my friend's condition and the challenges of special needs children. What stood out for me in the conversation that I had with my mother about the subject was her strong emphasis on the need to be sensitive to such children's needs and difficulties. She warned me against talking ill of people living with a disability or discriminating against them in any way.

After a few weeks in school, I came to learn the boy's name was Mark, and he was deaf and dumb. As I interacted with him more, I noticed that Mark was jovial and easy-going; he would often join in our games in the field. Unfortunately, because he could not talk nor hear what any of us was saying, some of my colleagues in school would bully him. Sometimes, Mark would get segregated from our games, and he would sit on the field and watch us as we went on with sports.

As I grew older, I realized that Mark, together with the other children in the special needs section of our school were facing all similar challenges in the school. Part of the problems included a lack of active participation. In school, children in the special needs unit were often on their own. Rarely were they as engaged in the play activities like the other children. Instead, they often sat on the side tracks of the playground and watched the other children play; and whenever any of them would try to join, they would be faced with rejections from the other children.

Further, I came to realize that children on special needs schools were faced with much stigma because of rampant misconceptions about their situations. Some of my colleagues would give them names that ridiculed their disabilities. They struggled with neglect and marginalization by the other children in the school. There was so much negativity towards children with the unique needs in the school that it was not rare to meet a case where one of them was physically injured because they were seen as totally helpless by the other children.

The majority of them seemed to have low self-esteem; they seemed to have developed an inferiority complex. It seemed like the children in the special school used to think that they did not fit in the school society. This was clear because they used to show signs of self-pity and also non-reporting of insults and physical rights violations against them. One more challenge I often saw children in the special school go through was infrastructural difficulties. Both the playground and the roads within the school seemed impassable to these children, especially those of them that had physical mobility disabilities.

The challenges of Mark and the other children in the school got me thinking over the years about what could be done to help alleviate the problems of children with disabilities so that they can be positively be integrated into society. After completion of the basic level of education, it was time to choose a career, and two things kept ringing in my heart. I wanted a career where I would be able to have a lifelong impact on society. I knew I could only achieve this by choosing a job that would enable me to advocate for the same course that I care about. After a deep soul searching on the course to take take, I decided to pursue a career in the direction of the rights of people with special needs in our society.

My mission would be one of educating special children on their rights, and also I would be involved in the fight for the rights of special rights children in the instances where there would be a violation. In advocating for the rights of special needs children, I would seek to team up with other educators, health professionals, psychologists, and parents to find resources that fit the educational needs of all the special needs children.

I chose a career in special needs education because of the daily impact I would see my efforts making on the students. For example, an effort that would make a child who has autism and who is resistant to personal touch comes up and gently hugs me. I knew that through such efforts in the special needs education, I would be able to be part of many milestones in the success of many people living with various disabilities. There is no doubt that the work I do today encourages and restores hope to the students, their families, and their support systems.