Interview with the Leader
1. Under what circumstances did you choose this job?
About twenty years ago, I saw someone recruiting teachers of special education and chose to join in without thinking about what I would be facing in the future.
2. What is the most gratifying thing during your job?My life can be divided into two phases. Firstly I teach the kids as a teacher, bringing them to progress and growth by my efforts, persistence and enthusiasm. The kids are happy and satisfied because they work hard and improve little by little. Secondly I teach other teachers of special education to lead the kids handicapped mentally or physically. It reaches another level of achievement while we draw up collective goals and work as a team.
3. What obstacles have you encountered during your job and how did you solve them?It’s a huge setback when others don’t identify with me. However, this also stimulates me to self-examine often and to read Carnegie’s books. There’s one sentence that affects me the most, “A person only changes when it brings him benefits.” Therefore I spend lots of efforts to persuade others, know how others think and change my communication skills. The relationship among colleagues becomes better as a result.
For the part of “enlightenment of intelligence”, as long as we find out the facets and intention of problems and intervene reasonably, there will be obvious improvements. As for the part of “children and teenagers”, we had spent abundant efforts but the problems still existed. Then we realized that “we shouldn’t blame others and should reflect whether we are wrong”. The team thus self-examined and came up with strategies, building a normal living environment for kids.
In this organization, rules are established but they’re modified and planned to resemble those in a family. We treat the kids in “Tsu Sheng” as ours and make a balance between safety and letting go. We avoid deciding their demands by our value and modify their needs according to their ages in an effort to reduce conflicts. We guide them instead of deciding for them.
5. What are your expectations and goals of the students here?The possibility of kids in the enlightenment of intelligence apartment leaving here is low because their parents are old. Education of enlightenment of intelligence in the past didn’t allow kids to participate in decision-making, only teaching them how to live on their own. In the future, we are trying our best to accompany kids to pursue their dreams, which gives us genuine happiness.
As to the apartment of children and teenagers, one day they will leave Tsu Sheng, but not all of their biological family will recover, and not all of their relatives and friends will accept them. So we should prepare knowledge for them beforehand, making them encounter life and cruelty of reality in advance. By doing this we hope to provide them with the knowledge they need, to instill in them the power of judgment and the ability to take responsibilities, to observe others’ expressions, to control themselves, to turn down temptations, to comply with reasonable disciplines, and to respect themselves as well as others.
6. How was the daily schedule of students arranged?
According to the types of handicaps and different ages, we arrange the courses of students here. It varies from course to course. Ninety percent of the activities including accommodation are indoors. Therefore the schedule consists of activities in day, at night, and in holidays.
7. Do students here have holidays or time to return home?Many students stay in the dormitories here. Around eighty students stay all year long, others go home once a week or two, still others return home once a semester. We state that going home is the right of every student and the responsibility of their parents. There’s no such rule that everyone must return home because some parents really aren’t able to look after of their children. But we encourage parents to come and visit kids so that they won’t feel disappointed.
8. Are activities held often here? What kinds of activities are they? Can you give us some examples?Some of the activities here are launched by Tsu Sheng, such as birthday parties, graduation ceremonies, festival celebrations, and gathering around the table to eat Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner. Other activities are held by other sources, like club activities of schools, in which they will invite us to join.
9. What your opinions about the caring activities held by the society in Tsu Sheng?We really appreciate that people from all walks of life hold activities here. Whether it’s material support or financial assistance, it helps to introduce those who are handicapped to the society, increasing their chances to be accepted.