Every Child is Special.docx

“Every Child is Special” ***a movie analysis from Every Child is special Introduction: “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each”, as quoted by Plato, summed up the plot of the movie “Every Child is Special”. In the movie, the story focused on the dynamic character of an 8-year old boy, Ishaan Awasthi, the younger of two brothers, sons of a businessman. Unlike the other children in his age, who are serious in studies and in doing their home works, his creative side always brings him to day-dreaming and thinking. His teachers, parents and the people around him do not understand or comprehend his behaviors. They are ignorant about the developmental disorder called Dyslexia and just branded him as deviant and misbehave. Dyslexia is a developmental disorder selectively affecting a child’s ability to learn how to read and write. It affects boys more often than girls. The story continued when Ishaan’s father sent him to a boarding school, against his will. Accordingly, to discipline him. There, Ishaan felt unloved, oppressed, and rejected. He had a hard time coping with his disorder. His teachers predicted he would go before the school year would be over. His world began to crumble. Until a temporary teacher, Rum Nikumbh, who also suffered the same problem as a child, understood what was happening to Ishaan. Going out of his way, took the patience to teach Ishaan how to read and write and helped him regain his selfconfidence, by capitalizing on the field where Ishaan excelled, that is PAINTING and INVENTION. Unlike the other teachers who used the traditional method of pen and paper and based one’s success on high grades, Nikumbh, did the opposite. He gave his students all the freedom to express their ideas and discover their talents in whatever form possible, like painting, invention, anything where the child could express his ideas. As a highlight, Nikumbh conducted an “Art Fair”, where everybody in school- teachers and students, alike were participants. To the headmaster’s and everybody’s astonishments, Ishaan emerged the best, over his art master, Nikumbh.

Discussion: The movie had conveyed lots of messages that clearly show the reality in our society. The way parents rear their children in preparation for their future; the teacher’s method of teaching and disciplining their students and the competitive way of life in this modern world, where it is said that “life is a race”. The main concern of this discussion is on the strictness of parents in disciplining their child, and which strict discipline was continued when the child went to a formal school, where competition and high grades is the main concern. As stated in the movie by one of the teachercharacter, “this is a formal school… here, we prepare children for life’s race. Kids have to compete, succeed and make a future. Our school’s motto: Order, Discipline, Labor… three pillars of success, foundation of complete education…” These lines clearly state the customary view of most teachers about education especially in enforcing discipline to their students. But then, what is discipline anyway? Discipline is defined in the Webster’s English dictionary as a field of learning; training and conditioning to produce obedience and self-control; punishment; the maintenance of order and obedience as a result of punishment; a system of rules of behavior. In the story, because Ishaan has his “own world”, because of his being a dyslexic, he does not associate with boys his age. He was always being bullied and when angered, always ready to fight back. He became a problem child, not only to his parents, but also to school and to the other children who never understand his nature. His father thought he found a solution to teach the kid proper behaviour and improve his academics, by sending him to a boarding school, despite the child’s plea not to send him away. The child was sent away from the only person who loved and cared for him – his mother. With the Dyslexic condition of the chid, he became worse. He never participated in any activity, despite the harsh punishment of his strict teachers. In the study of the sociologist Harry Gracey entitled Learning the Student Role: Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp, she compared kindergarten to a military boot camp where discipline and obedience are trained. The children are taught of the student role. Here the student role involves what might be called “doing what you’re told and never mind why”. While

children’s perceptions of the world and opportunities for genuine spontaneity and creativity are being systematically eliminated from the kindergarten, unquestioned obedience to authority and rote learning of meaningless material are being encouraged. They have learned to go smoothly through a programmed day, regardless of whether parts of the program make any sense to them or not. “The children have learned to go through routines and to follow orders with unquestioning obedience, even when these make no sense to them. They have been disciplined to do as they are told by an authoritative person without significant protest… children who submit to school-imposed discipline and come to identify with it, so that being a “good student” comes to be an important part of their developing identities, become the good students by the school’s definitions… children who refuse to submit to the school routines are rebels, who become known as “bad students” and often “problem” children in the school, for they do not learn the academic curriculum and their behaviour is often disruptive in the classroom…” In the story, the teachers dealt on generalizations. Just because the majority of the students follow the school rules and discipline without question, the few who cannot follow are already considered deviants, lazy and idiots. They failed to recognize the uniqueness of each and every child. They failed to recognize that every child has a special need that should be addressed in a special way. Thanks to the temporary teacher in the story, Nikumbh, who is God-sent to Ishaan. As a Dyslexic himself, he was able to see himself in Ishaan, and through his patience and dedication to his profession, he was able to redeem Ishaan and turned him into a great painter. His method of teaching was giving true friendship and understanding to the child. He never saw the bad side in the child and when the child was able to regain his self-confidence, he believed that everything will be alright for him, even in the competitive world where he lived. In an article written by Dr. Benjamin Spock, the true goal of discipline is to teach children the rules of behaviour- they need to learn what society and the people expect of their behaviour. This will help them grow up to be socially productive and personally fulfilled individuals. Most people associate the word “discipline” with “punishment”, “physical punishment” even. Employing punishment makes a good little robot and the child will perfectly behave most

of the time. But then, consequences or effect of every action is not avoided. This simple imposing of disciplinary punishment would affect the child’s own view of himself, his own feelings and feelings towards others. Spanking a child’s hands just because of not listening or throwing him with a chalk is a violent act against the small mind of that child. Shouting abusive words were not even helpful for his development. What a child see or experience in life, he has the tendency to apply it to others. Having experienced spanking as a way of telling a child he is wrong, he would also apply it to a younger sibling or child, and thus, bred a vicious cycle of violence. Other points of the story tell not only how ignorant we are about the condition “dyslexia”, but boils down on the following issues: 1. The issue on parenting. Parents today are easily swayed by the competitive world and often times fail to understand their own children’s dreams. Most often, parents pushes their children to strive academically, forgetting that a child may not be academically successful, but is excelling in practical skills. While intelligence can be inherited, sometimes they are not brought out to the fullest because of the influence of the child’s growing up environment. The place where he lived may not be conducive for learning, or the people around him are not supportive of his studies or the child is determined to finish a course but the financial status of the parents do not permit, etc. Parents sometimes compare their children to them, when they were the students. Just because they are professionals, they expected their children to become professionals also. When their children settled on skilled jobs or go to vocational schools, they already consider them as “mahina ang utak”. As in the story, the best are only those with 95% and above ratings. If they are good in math or science, they send their children to study engineering or accounting, even if their children cannot cope up. In other words, they try to mold their children the person they want them to be and not the children molding themselves to become the person they wanted to become. 2. The teachers’ approaches on their students; including their methods of teaching and in giving disciplinary measures. In this changing world, there are methods of teaching before that have already become obsolete. Teachers, who are already more than ten (10) years in the

profession, do not deny that students in the 80’s or 90’s cannot be compared with the students of this 21st century. Students then were easy to discipline because they respect and follow what their teachers say. While sometimes they rebel against their teachers, they do it in a subtle way. Now, students are hard to discipline. All forms of disciplining to students ends up with the teacher either facing a child abuse case or administrative complaints. Maybe because the people are becoming intelligent or we are forgetting our values. 3. Special ways of teaching children with special conditions (such as Dyslexia, like Ishaan in the story). Special Education Centers for special children with disabilities are few in our place and very expensive. Because, like in the story, we are ignorant of some special disabilities of children, like Dyslexia, we just branded these children as “abnormal” and just let them as they are. Parents, especially in places where the main source of income is agriculture and farming, are financially hard-up, not to mention the fact that they are uneducated, so that they do not recognize and understand the plight of children with disabilities and were just left in the house. They do not bring them for professional help, thus, these children were not able to develop their God-given talents. Their uniqueness are often misunderstood as misbehaviours. Every Child is Special. Wherever they are in the society, God has given each and every child a special ability, which, when developed to the fullest, would have a great contribution to the society.

Conclusion: A good DISCIPLINE will surely lead a child to success, but in disciplining a child, it should be done with love, care and understanding. A child should not be like a robot that follows only what they are told, but that they are fragile human beings with a heart to be hurt when unloved and a mind to think what is best for them. Do not force blind obedience to a child, but explain the reason and the consequences for failing to obey and the child would be willing to comply.

Discipline is simply being in order. It does not necessarily mean putting punishments in every misbehaving action of a child but, encouraging him to improve his abilities and, if possible, to overcome his disabilities. Insight: Showering love, care and understanding to someone, especially a child, who seems lost in this world, is the best one could give. Parents! Know the limitations of your children! Teachers! Do not push your students the limit, they might jump out of the building! Students! Do not be a bully to your fellow students! It will lead to violence. Recommendation: It is strongly recommended that the movie Every Child is Special showed, not only to students, but to parents and teachers as well.