Fellow Anguillians, I am the Head of the Special Needs Department at the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School. I greet you on behalf of our principal, Mrs. Ingrid Lake, teachers, students and parents of the Special Education Needs Department. Our Department is celebrating a week of activities from March 9th to 14th 2014, with the theme, “Our Challenges Do Not Limit Our Abilities”.
We have organised various events to sensitize other teachers and students and the public to the needs of our special children. Our goals are to: build camaraderie among professionals working with these students; to provide experiences that promote positive interactions among our exceptional students; and to build parental involvement. A strong link between home and school is vital for students to reach their full potential.
The scheduled activities include: a Church Service, a Collage Display and a seminar on Autism and Diet and workshop on Establishment of a Professional Learning Community. The Learning Centre at Campus A will also host an open week. There will be field trips will include to ANI’s Art Academy, The Big Spring and a special school in St. Martin. A musical evening will take place and a visit to the Rock Oven in South Hill will be made. The detailed agenda is available at the school office and is being published in the media. We encourage all to come celebrate with us. We thank you for your continued support.
With respect to our theme, we all need to be encouraged to rise above any challenges we face. A challenge is a task or situation that tests someone’s abilities. A limit is the restriction on the size or amount of something permissible or possible. Ability is a talent, skill or proficiency to do something. We might consider our theme to actually say, “Our abilities can overcome any challenge!”
In our Special Education Needs Department, the plight of the special child is a challenge to teachers who believe that all children need a chance to succeed. In every classroom, there are students that vary in learning ability. Just as no two pupils look exactly alike, so they differ in their attitudes, learning and adjustments. This special child has difficulty following directions. He needs more explanation. Or, she cannot readily apply what she has learned to new and more difficult situations. He’s easily confused and distracted. They require approval, praise, and acceptance by all students, teachers and parents as contributing members of the group, although it may be at a different level.
Special Education Needs teachers make realistic appraisals of the challenges faced by these exceptional children and suggest positive approaches for each; thus, overcoming these obstacles through good educational practices. We can also speed up the learning process by observing successful people and by following in their footsteps.
We can learn from the most successful teachers, and other persons in our community, like the gifted Honorable James Ronald Webster, ‘Father of the Nation’, and ‘Anguilla’s First Chief Minister’ who was the son of a fisherman with only a standard six education, led the Anguilla revolution and demonstrated that good will and good deeds can alter adversity and change the eternal course of a country.
Everyone can learn from stories of persons who have not allowed challenges to limit their abilities. Do you remember Ben Carson? In his book, ‘Gifted Hands’ Ben Carson was an inner city special student with poor grades and little motivation. He did not know his multiplication tables or how to spell simple words. He came from a single-parent home. His mother dropped out in 3rd grade yet struggled to have him read two books per week and write book reports on them.
With hard work and determination, he got a scholarship to medical school. In time, he overcame a bad temper, discrimination, his wife’s heartbreaking miscarriage, extreme medical challenges and ultimately was the first neurosurgeon to successfully separate Siamese twins joined at the head and became the most respected neurosurgeon in the world. He did not allow his challenges to limit his abilities.
We also know of persons with physical challenges who overcame them against all odds namely Helen Keller best known for her accomplishments as a deaf and blind person. Nick Vujicic, a man with no limbs, but is a world renowned motivational speaker. Her Honour Senator KerryAnn Ifill, a visually impaired Barbadian politician who was the first woman to be elected to this position. The past does not equal the future. No matter what challenges we encounter, whatever mistakes we’ve made, whatever knowledge we don’t yet have, whatever limitation we have allowed to hold us back it doesn’t mean that we are doomed to live that way always.
In fact, many of us will see that our destiny came from some dark moments. Something we would never have, or do, or be, had we not gone through that challenge. Life provides us with many lessons, however, when we recognize that struggling is so often essential for survival, it is then and only then that we will find out that we have to go through trials to succeed.
We should also never let anyone try to convince us that we can’t do something, especially if they haven’t done it. Stay encouraged. Belief in oneself is more important than what anyone thinks. We all need to find our own path and trust our inner voice. Nelson Mandela reminded us that we must refuse to live a defeated life regardless of our present situation or circumstances. He affirmed that “courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear”.
Just as we strive to do in helping our students, we all need to continue to use a variety of approaches and plans to meet our challenges. Eventually we will succeed. The most important thing in our life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I am doing’ the moment we take the first step toward our goals.
James Castro once said, “I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life’s problems”… we see that Life is a process, and we cannot reap and sow at the same time. We must press towards our marks, hold each other accountable, and help one another along the way.
By holding a spirit of optimism and positive expectation that things will work out for us, we discover the brilliance within. Each of us can also determine to be a gift in someone’s life. Be a messenger of hope and a catalyst of change and inspiration to others. Our spirits can lift others’ and remind them that their lives, regardless of their circumstances, reflect unique blessings.
A goal-directed person will see opportunities in almost any situation, while the person with self-defeating patterns will see only that in his environment which will lead him to fail. It seems some people almost always grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. One must have the power to stick with a goal or a dream until it is completed. Refuse to become distracted by bumps or hurdles in the road. Always discard the negative opinions and comments of others.
Success comes through perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and all impossibilities. Achievement is connected with action. The difference between the impossible and possible lies in a person’s determination. We can either let challenges drive us to despair or drive us to prayer and meaningful steps toward our goals.
Results come from careful planning, hard work, determination, focused energy and feeling the pain that might otherwise keep us back. We are all capable; we are strong, we need to believe in ourselves, turn our dreams into plans, and turn our plans into reality. Today, I’m urging each of us to take the road less travelled, to forge our own path to unlocking that greatness within. In so doing, we shall unlock Anguilla’s greatness far beyond the classroom as an entire community.
In closing, I would like to wish my students their parents and teachers a Happy Special Education Week and ask all to remember to be true to ourselves, be the very best we can be, and live in keeping with our highest values and aspirations. As Zig Ziglar’s words have so often been quoted to encourage us all, we are “designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” Quite simply, our abilities CAN overcome any challenge.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
