| As a veteran teacher in both mainstream and
special education schools, A Nong's experience is relevant to education
in Hong Kong today.
"Each individual student in a special education school presents
a great challenge to the teachers. Students with complex family backgrounds
simply defy normal approaches. Teachers have to be specially trained
and must be able to give students a lot of patience and love. In the
special education school where I worked, each class took roughly twelve
students and the whole school was supported by two social workers who
would follow up some especially thorny cases. If the support is inadequate,
'problem' students will cause a great deal of disturbance in mainstream
schools. Teachers who lack specialist training can find handling these
students a daunting task."
A Nong recounted incidents involving a group of secondary school students
with hearing impairments. Because of their disabilities, they would
raise their voices during conversations without realising they were
doing so; they would pound on the library door - behaviour which startled
other students. He suggests that both teachers and students require
an adjustment period during which training and support should be given
to help everyone settle into the new environment.
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