Teacher of disabled students

(Baonghean) - For many years now, more than 200 disabled and mentally retarded students at the Nghe An Vocational Education Center for the Disabled have always considered the teachers here as their friends, as well as their beloved fathers and mothers...

Wrestle each letter

Classes in class 1T-4T of teacher Dang Thi Mai Lien are very special. All 14 of teacher Lien’s students are mentally disabled, so the class is not “peaceful” but bustling. The class is bustling with the sounds of children mumbling and pronouncing, practicing counting, and teasing each other with unclear meanings…

The visitors arrived, 14 students with innocent smiles and eyes but extremely polite stood up to greet them. Seeing them greet, Ms. Lien smiled happily with tears in her eyes, gently praising them for being good and obedient. Being praised by her, the students were happy, then sat down to continue with their "private" work.

Teacher Dang Thi Mai Lien “struggles” to take care of mentally disabled students. She confided that it can take months to help them learn a letter or number.

The class was noisy, but instead of getting angry and scolding, the teacher sweetly coaxed the students to focus on the lesson. Each student had a different perception and level, and Ms. Lien was attentive and patient in guiding each student in different ways. In this class, each student had their own world, only the teacher was the center.

Among the classes for students with disabilities, class T is the most special with children who “refuse to grow up” – suffering from mental retardation syndrome. Teaching knowledge to them takes a lot of effort because they are slow to absorb, forget quickly, and take months to recognize letters and numbers. And sometimes, due to unstable or inhibited personalities, they argue back, even have destructive behaviors, slap, bite, roll around, run away, etc.

Ms. Lien said: To teach children effectively, teachers themselves must be gentle, patient, have a good understanding of their psychology, sometimes be strict, sometimes have to follow the students' requests, when they want to play, they also participate in their childish actions. Teaching children with intellectual disabilities is more important than teaching them life skills, how to behave properly, and how to participate in normal activities.

After class, the teachers at the Center encourage students to participate in physical activities to improve their health according to each student's physical condition.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Lieu, who has taught at the Center for 22 years, has now switched to student management and goes to each room to take care of the children's bathing and personal activities. The children come to mother Lieu's arms to hug and kiss her and ask her to comb and tie their hair.

Ms. Lieu said: Minh has to follow every student closely to grasp their thoughts and feelings, listen and share. Only by sharing daily life can he guide them to do the following tasks: wiping tables and chairs, sweeping the floor, washing clothes, personal hygiene, taking care of themselves, cleaning up school supplies, arranging the trays and bowls for meals, and counting the number of bowls of rice according to the number of members.

The teachers at the Center always love their students with all their hearts. They are present in the classroom very early to prepare school supplies for their students; They come home very late because they wait for parents to pick up their boarding students, reminding them to eat well, exercise properly, and take care of themselves.…

At 5 pm, students finish school and return to the dormitory. At this time, staff and teachers of the Center go to each room to encourage students to participate in health training activities, depending on each student's physical condition, arranging appropriate activities such as walking, badminton, table tennis, soccer...

Special gifts

Visiting the deaf class of teacher Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong, we saw touching images: As soon as the teacher reached the stairs, students rushed out to hug her, some helped her carry her bag, some held her hand and chattered away saying words that only Ms. Phuong could understand. When entering the classroom, the students brought fresh flowers and small gifts wrapped beautifully for her. Receiving the flowers and gifts from the students, Ms. Phuong smiled with tears streaming down her face, hugged the students and choked up with gratitude...

Teacher Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong's tears flowed as she received flowers donated by her deaf students on Vietnamese Teachers' Day.

Looking at her students laughing and smiling, Ms. Phuong's tears kept flowing: "They are all from far away districts, studying in boarding schools, their families are very poor, their studies mainly depend on the scholarship of 360 thousand VND/month. Today, I don't know where they got the money to buy flowers and gifts for me on November 20th. They told me, "When we get home, Mom can open the gifts to see if there is a surprise.

The students in Ms. Phuong’s deaf class are very well-behaved. Although their ability to listen and speak is limited, they learn quickly. To help them learn, a teacher like Ms. Phuong must find every way and every language to explain and convey to them so that they can understand. In addition, she must always be caring, close, gentle, and love them wholeheartedly.

Ms. Phuong confided: Most disabled students live far from their families and live in concentrated areas, so they lack affection. Teachers always consider themselves parents, with sincere love, helping them acquire knowledge and integrate into the community. …For 16 years, I have always considered them as my children and vice versa, they also consider me as their mother. That is a great happiness.

Mr. Le Thanh Tinh, a carpentry teacher with 24 years of experience at the Center, shared: "There is no greater happiness than knowing that some of my students have opened their own carpentry workshops, have enough skills to support themselves and build a family"...

Teacher Le Thanh Tinh's simple happiness is not only helping disabled children become good at their jobs, but also being able to open a workshop and work to support himself.

In Mr. Tinh’s carpentry class, the sound of sawing and chiseling is like a pleasant melody. The 16 students here all pay close attention and listen to the teacher’s verbal and manual instructions so that they can practice accurately. Newcomers learn straight sawing, straight planing, and chiseling; those with more “skills” practice sawing, planing along curves, and mortising. Every year, about 4-5 people graduate from Mr. Tinh’s class…

Mr. Tinh is recognized as a national-level excellent vocational teacher, but he did not start out as a vocational teacher but graduated from a pedagogical school and carpentry is a family profession. In his work, he has constantly learned and found the most effective teaching methods to help students master the profession, meeting the market's demand for civil and fine art carpentry.

Teacher Bui Thi Lai guides her students through the first stitches. At the Center, teaching students a trade is important, but teachers always keep in mind that teaching life skills and creating joy and confidence in life is even more important.

Like Mr. Tinh's class, Ms. Bui Thi Lai's embroidery class currently has many large, beautiful embroidered paintings worth millions of dong. Ms. Lai boasts: "This is the result of a month's worth of dedication and effort from both me and my students."

Ms. Lai’s class currently has over 15 students, with different ages and professional levels. Witnessing with your own eyes the image of teacher Bui Thi Lai caringly and patiently teaching hearing-impaired students each needle and thread, you can see the boundless love she has for disabled students.

Ms. Lai confided, “Teaching students a profession is very important, but the most important thing is to encourage them to overcome material deprivation and inferiority complex, and nurture their dreams to become useful people for society. Therefore, every day at school, seeing my students not absent for any reason makes me feel comforted and empowered…”

Although the Center’s facilities are becoming more and more spacious and clean thanks to the investment of the State, organizations and individuals, the Center’s staff and teachers are still worried and burdened with worries when the students’ meals are still “poor” because the subsidy system cannot fully support their education.

Mr. Phan Bui Hai, Director of the Center, is concerned about the "output" for the students: "Currently, the Center regularly coordinates with companies and businesses to find job opportunities for the students, but it is very difficult. Only a few garment companies accept deaf students to work. The students' jobs are dependent on the support of their families and relatives."

Student manager Vuong Thi Lien takes care of her students’ hair. With love, teachers always share with students the joys and sorrows of daily life; thereby guiding them in self-service and self-care skills.

Every year on November 20, school teachers are determined to find every way to bring joy to the children. On the other hand, this is also an opportunity to educate the children that this is a happy day for teachers, about the tradition of "respecting teachers and valuing education" of the nation.

This year, the Center organized a discussion and entertainment session for the children, helping to bridge the gap between them and their teachers, between them and society so that they can understand and eliminate their inferiority complex and self-consciousness.

With teachers- the kind mother of the "incomplete souls" here, the greatest joy on Teachers' Day is to witness the children's progress, doing the lightest tasks every day. They believe: "The love of a teacher of disabled children cannot heal the physical defects of the children, but it will help them to soon integrate into the community. It is greater than love for the profession, it is the love of parents for their children, the love of humanity, the love of fellow human beings"./.

Thanh Son