Exposure…….learning……satisfaction……gratitude
When the results were declared in May 2012, we were pleasantly surprised to see that that my daughter had cleared all three subjects with fairly good marks! Her educators cheered and rejoiced seeing her on stage, receiving progress awards for this joint achievement. I explained to my daughter what all she had done very well and why everyone was congratulating her. She was able to relate to the happiness and smiles in all our faces, as a result of her good work! We started preparing for the 2nd round of examination for 2 subjects Business Studies and Bakery, to be held in April 2013.
My son’s talents began unfolding and he showed interest in vocal music, dance and drama. He participated and performed beautifully on stage in school programmes as well as during Durgapuja celebrations. Seeing him so confident on stage whether singing or delivering his dialogues, it would be difficult to control my emotions sitting as a spectator. His sister learnt to sit in a huge crowd, wait for his performance and could easily connect with him when on stage. These were the real moments of pride for us parents and I thanked the Almighty wholeheartedly.
For the first time, we sent our daughter on an out-station trip with our caretaker. She had difficulty in using washrooms outside home due to her sensory issues. A lot of assurance and a bit of extra cleaning helped her to adjust to the new washrooms and bathrooms. Lord has been so kind to bless her with peers who engaged her and accompanied her in the different activities during the school outings. I often wondered if my daughter benefitted from these interactions, what did the others learn from my daughter? The answer is ‘kindness’, ‘acceptance’ and ‘sensitivity’.
Business Studies was a tough subject for her to comprehend but she managed to learn the matter so well! This girl could memorize and recall upto 20 points in detail, to answer a given question! We restructured the questions in various forms and she learnt to associate the answer to the question. She still needed prompts to differentiate between an objective and a subjective type of question. Bakery was an easy subject with interesting topics along with practical work.
This year we were more confident with our preparation. An young sensitive educator who had been associated with special children, agreed to be my daughter’s interpreter. After the examination, the educator could not control her excitement in expressing how well my daughter answered….it seemed that she knew all the questions! It was a task for her to slow down the pace of writing the answers!
That year, she topped in her class for her performance in Business Studies. It gave overwhelming happiness to hear her name for the highest score, when she received the award on stage.
I said a silent prayer of gratitude to God for giving me the wisdom to make the right choice….to encourage her to study. Now, she had proudly cleared her Secondary School Examination!
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller
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