Sitting in my Special Ed course classes yesterday and today, I realized how much we all view the world from one framework. We all share more or less the same definitions of work, leisure, friendships,intimate relationships. Not only do we share these definitions,we are very entrenched in our certainity of these definitions... and the majority definition is the norm.

Through many of the video clippings I've seen during my 'Disability and Social Development' course, I've come to realize that I know little about love, I know little about commitment, I know little about friendships. All my relationships work in the realm of the known - where the other person and I know what is expected,what are the 'givens' and a predictable negotiation is created.

But what does it mean to love and be married to a man with ADHD-where he finds it extremely difficult to filter out the required stimulus from multiple auditory stimuli? What does it mean to be the mother of a son who is a paraplegic and cannot do anything for himself?

Can we actually be so sure about our definitions of love, success, job-satisfaction, relationship-satisfaction when we have altogether forgotten to factor in the realities of these special people...when we have altogether forgotten to understand what all the above mean to these people and the people in their lives?

Far from 'politically correct' reasons for asking these questions, I ask them because they too are a part of 'Society'. So by default and a very common sense perspective these questions need to be asked,so that the answers that come from these special people may become our answers as well. But the answers are not going to come to us on a silver platter. We need to shed our certainities...we need to look.

Library as Inspiration

Four thousand words after four thousand words...and it doesn't stop there!The avalanche of academic 'writing tasks' had me right at the bottom of the pile of huge stones,without a clue as to which one I needed to deftly shift in order to see the light.

Three weeks ago,when I took time off from obssessing with this metaphor, I decided to take an inch-by-inch look at my faculty library-the ERC- Education Resource Centre.I had been on a "tour" of this place during orientation week but at that time it didn't make an impact on me- thanks to all the home-sickness I was busy feeling.I even walked out half-way because I found the "tour" too pedantic.Why did I go in the first place? I guess I held these huge,silent bookhouses with their complicated systems,strict librarians and the complicated machines that replaced the work of the strict librarians, in fearful reverence.I had seen nothing like them back home and decided to go in order to learn about their workings.

Coming back to "So three weeks ago"... I stepped into the ERC- this time with lower levels (but still bad!) of home-sickness and the weight of the pile of stones growing on me.I got in through the main entrance,fleeing a banshee-like cold wind, and landed up on level 3 of the library.There she was- the stern and stiff looking lady at the information desk with a sign dangling above her head that said 'Can I Help You?' And I thought to myself- "No, not looking like that!" and simply bypassed her.

I decided to saunter up to level 4,where I remembered from the tour,there is a large collection of teaching kits.So I started climbing the steps,expecting to search for a small shelf tucked away in some corner stocked with random games-which are often passed off as "educational tools".On reaching level 4,I generally looked to the left of me and saw something like 10 rows of long, 5- tier shelves holding drab cardboard boxes of various sizes.I said to myself - "they've got to be kidding me!".I went up to one of those fifty shelves and pulled out a 'teaching kit'.What happened after that can only be described in emotional terms.

There they were- the 1000 or so teaching kits.You name the topic and you had a kit for it.You open a kit and in essence what you see is the material to support the teaching of that topic in atleast five fantastic and mind-blowing ways! I remembered some of my students from the various levels I taught- the one who struggled with understanding the concept of 'Osmotic Pressure',the one who struggled with the concept that ten 'singles' make one 'ten', the one who struggled with understanding how we have seasons... That they struggled and did make it after all,made their learning valuable.But I couldn't stop myself from thinking how much more varied that learning would have been,if they could learn through these kits.

This was the day I realized I was blessed to be here.To see this.To be a part of this faculty,full of people using their deep senstivity to seek out every need of a child and applying their brilliant minds to find creative means to fulfill each need.

I was even more moved when I explored the rest of level 4 and the two levels above it.So much...so much has been studied and written about- with soul , heart and mind,for the child.So many aspects of education had been explored at such depths.I realized that in there -were several 'academic tasks' written by other people.Only now,I don't see them as "tasks".Each written piece is a black-on-white declaration that some adults care to have their eyes burn in front of the computer screen and fingers hurt knocking away at the keyboard...

...so that no stone is left unturned in finding the right education for our children.