The School On The Other Side

My family had shifted to a new town before my primary schooling began. I was admitted me to a new school in a new place where I knew no one. However, I continued to stay in the same school for the rest of my student life. I remember how I used to hate going to school. I would cry to my mom every day and begged her to not make me go. I was a big cry baby you could say. Though there were quite a few reasons why I disliked going to school, one of them was the students from the school on the opposite street.

Let me provide you some context. The institution which built our school also created a school for children with special needs. As a child I was not sure of what that meant, I could just see that these children were different. At first, I was terrified of them. I used to ride the school bus every day and both the schools had the same bus, which meant that our school students and they used to be together. I remember being so scared that I refused to sit next to them. Even though I was a confident kid, when it came to them, I would always avoid talking. These children suffered from several disabilities right from physical disabilities such as blindness, deafness, or cognitive disorders such as dyslexia or dysgraphia. Children with Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, and other disabilities are unable to cope with studies along with regular students. It is the simple case of if you want the fish to survive, would you teach it how to fly or would you teach it how to swim? Thus, this school on the opposite side of the road was made for children suffering from such conditions. Similarly, these children were taught using different methods that made understanding easy for them.

Coming back to my story, for the first year, I refused to interact with the children from the other school. Once as I was getting ready for school, you know the usual, putting on my uniform, tying my hair whilst I cried profusely, I was again trying to convince my mother with puppy eyes to let me take a sick day from school. That’s when she told me something that changed the 8-year-old me’s perspective. As a mother she was afraid as to why I was so unwilling to go to school, she kept asking me, “Did someone do something to you?” “Are the teachers not nice?” and then she asked me, “Are you scared of the children from the other school?” She saw my subtle agreeing nod and sat me down explaining how I shouldn’t be scared of these children and instead be kind to them. They had been created this way and it was not their fault. Instead of being scared or troubling them like most of the other children in my bus, I should be kind to them, extend a hand of friendship and treat them the way I treat the rest of my friends.

Ever since that day, I started talking to these kids and I won’t lie when I tell you that they are some of the purest souls on this earth. They used to always help me, and soon all the other children in the bus started talking to them too. Going to school became something I used to enjoy now, especially the bus rides since I had made such special friends.

The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) estimated in the year 2001 that the number of persons with disabilities in India is 1.8% of the Indian population of which 49% of them are literate and only 34% are employed. Out of this, the prevalence of intellectual disability (previously known as mental retardation) has been estimated at 1-4% which is 20 people per 1000 in the population. Since the start of civilization, people with “abnormal” physiognomy have been feared of or ridiculed. Families with intellectually disabled children face several social obstacles such as being alienated from the community, being mocked, and are often unable to provide the correct attention that these children require. Throughout the years, research to find better ways for teaching students with ID has been going on. However despite all of this, even today we can see how society, people like you and I stigmatize, bully, and use offensive slurs against such people. It is time that we change this and provide support to families and people suffering from intellectual disabilities. In the end, it is us, you and me who can make them feel more included, empathize with them, understand the conditions that they are living in, and just be kind to them. Life isn’t fair to most of us and we all have our troubles, but as a human, we must help the ones in need.

If you saw the school on the other side, it would seem like an ordinary educational structure with the classrooms and cafeteria and the teachers. But what was different about this school is that it gave an equal chance to those who are thought of as less from others by the world, it gave them and their families hope. I admire my school for allowing us to see the lives of these students and providing us with the privilege to call them our truly special friends.