A Special Education

Ms Nagashima Aya has been building ties between her school and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School (CPAS) for the last five years. She believes that her students have learned a lot more than they’ve given through this partnership. 

Nagashima Aya, Outstanding Youth in Education Award 2015 Finalist
Meridian Junior College

---

“Hello, Jie Jie!”

I can still vividly remember my maiden visit to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School (CPAS). I remember the many questions racing through my mind as I prepared for the visit. “Can they talk? How should I talk to them? How can I help them?”

I was filled with apprehension as I walked down a long ramp meant for wheelchair access to the canteen. An enthusiastic boy greeted me warmly and grinned from ear-to-ear. The sight of him in a wheelchair with limbs that were far too skinny broke my heart. He gestured for me to follow him and I instinctively reached out for the handles to push his wheelchair. But before I knew it, he was whizzing past the rest of his classmates as he wheeled himself around with ease.

That was the first step of my journey which opened my eyes to what these students were capable of. They could eat on their own, clear their food trays and were responsible for their own items. This was the first of many valuable lessons I was to learn at CPAS.

Over the past five years, I have had the privilege of overseeing the Special Education (SPED) Satellite Partnership between Meridian Junior College (MJC) and CPAS. I witnessed many of my own students from MJC take the same route as I initially did, in understanding and celebrating what children from CPAS were capable of.

Student volunteers come and go, but what never changes is the tremendous amount of learning and growth that each Meridian student experiences in the interaction with the children from CPAS. Over the years, I’ve come across the “amateurs” who would “freeze” upon seeing the CPAS students, the “outgoing ones” who could click easily with them and the more “seasoned ones” who struck a fine balance between being strict and approachable. Regardless of how they started out, all of them would leave the programme wiser, more inspired and more humbled than when they first started.

Akmal* is a fine example of an outgoing volunteer who would unleash his inner child when he volunteered at CPAS. He would chat with the CPAS students about the latest cartoons and play with them at the playground. During the classroom sessions, he would be seated among the CPAS students, patiently guiding and helping them with character education lessons.

Right from the start, Akmal had been very frank about his dislike for kids. “I join this because my friends asked me to. Generally, I can’t stand kids and their drama,” Akmal shared during one of the reflection sessions. But seeing how good Akmal was with the CPAS students, I appointed him as the leader of the student volunteers. Initially, he turned down the role because he thought he had no prior leadership experience to handle such responsibilities. However, he agreed to give it a shot as he trusted my judgement.

The lesson ideas became more interesting when Akmal and his peers came up with a unique game called “Values Bingo”. The game was meant to teach CPAS students key values by reflecting on their actions. Instead of a number, each box on the Bingo card described a certain positive behaviour that students might have exhibited, for instance helping a friend in class. Those who had exhibited the positive behaviour would collect a smiley face sticker. The first student to collect a row of five stickers wins.

The competitive and reflective elements created a lot of excitement among the CPAS students that day. Their loud chatter and wide smiles showed how engaged and happy they were. The CPAS teacher praised the volunteers for coming up with such an insightful activity.

Encouraged by the success of this lesson, Akmal came up with more interesting ideas for the CPAS students. Sometimes, Akmal and his friends would get students to make character masks for skits such as “The Lion and the Mouse”, which touches on values such as kindness and courage. Catering to the students’ interest in visuals, the volunteers would also spend time filming and putting together humorous videos that exemplify right and wrong behaviours.

From being a fun-loving playmate, Akmal has blossomed into a reliable mentor who is firm yet approachable. He’s now adept at planning effective and engaging lessons and conducting them. Akmal was also inspired by the determination shown by the CPAS students to be independent despite the challenges they faced. He started putting in more effort in his studies and would visit the CPAS students when he felt the need to de-stress. His passion for volunteerism continued at the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH), which he joined after his graduation.

As much as “kors kors” such as Akmal have made great impact on the lives of the CPAS students, the volunteers have also benefited from the meaningful experiences.

Akmal’s heartfelt words reflect the thoughts of many volunteers before and after him: “I really enjoyed the wonderful sessions I had with the kids back at the Cerebral Palsy School. It was an awesome experience. Though I had my doubts at first, they have totally changed my opinion about children. I would love to see them again. The bonds that have been formed between the kids and me can never be broken. I miss them calling me ‘kor kor’. I miss Jack’s* (one of the CPAS students) words of wisdom like ‘never give up’ and ‘we must respect one another’. These words will continue to motivate me.”

Sometimes, students volunteer thinking that it’s all about what they can do for the CPAS students. I was guilty of that, too. This partnership has allowed my students and I to experience the essence of service-learning – we serve to learn so that we may learn to serve. I believe that every time we give, we’ll learn more than we can ever give.

I’ve seen how this partnership has grown from having just one Character-Building Programme to the current range of programmes which include Leadership Training Workshop and Neighbourhood Newspaper Collection. I feel blessed to have been a part of an experience like this.

*Actual name has been changed.