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You can call me Noi! This blog consists of my thoughts. I am just a simple person with BIG dreams! Like the charcoal, hot pressure and extreme heat must be present in order to create a Diamond. I am in the exact same process.
This year / The beginning of 2008 / Eye on horizon / Summary of the day / Settling for something less-- or not / Real story writing / Facts I like / Me? / Way or no way / A little preview /
Ok I have been itching to write in here! Finally, I am able to steal some time after all the testing and informal assessments that I have been doing today.
This movie, Taare Zameen Par (Every child is special) was promoted by Farhanah. It is a hindi movie. As you know, I am not a big fan of hindi movies mainly because of the predictable love stories and draggy songs that always comes along with it. However since this movie was about a child with Dyslexia, it did not seem too typical for me. Even so, the decision to watch it as a group was too last minute for me, I was only informed in the morning of the day and I was almost dragging myself out of bed on Saturday to cover Hanim's class, so I did not really plan to tag along with the gang to watch it.
However after the post class meeting, the gang managed to convinced me to go. I was still unsure, but nevertheless, I still wanted to go home first to put my heavy file at home before going.
So I went home and met the gang later at Shaw Towers, which, through some miracle and good luck, I was not that lost in the rain trying to find my way there.
The start of the movie displayed a boy, Ishaan, who was always punished and getting scolded by adults for the typical dyslexic type difficulties- always late, no time concept, unable to read and write, very clumsy, you know. The boy appears to be quite mischievious and that just adds more salt to the wound for the parents. Being frustrated parents, could understand why Ishaan was misbehaving but we, in real life know that children would rather be known as naughty than stupid. Its simply a camouflage for them.
As the movie went on, the father's frustrations also rises, leading them to sending him to a boarding school. The actress, who played the mother, was a lady of few words, but in the few moments she was on screen, one could not help but feel her dilemma in choosing the sides of her husband or her son. One could also not help but wonder why would a teacher ask someone who obviously cannot read, to read aloud in class. This in turn, lead to the class roaring with laughter and the poor boy retreated back to his own world where he was shut away from the harshness of reality. One also wonder why the principals and teachers have no knowledge of Dyslexia at all thus terming him as retarded. Perhaps India should look into having SNOs around in schools to detect such kids!
Watching the movie, I was able to connect to the boy, he was too familiar, a common case that I see everyday in school. No one understands, no one helps, and eventually he turns from a cheerful boy to someone who does not know how to smile anymore. The young actor who played the boy, was able to show such convincing act of dejection and dissapointment, yet again a common sight for me.
I was also touched by the witty, yet smart language that the teacher (Aamir Khan) uses to explain the father what Dyslexia really means. There are no doubt that there are more people who know about Dyslexia but sadly, they still remain unaware what the kids with Dyslexia really needs - reassurance.
The most familiar were the techniques that the teacher uses to teach reading like the letter tracing and usage of plasticine. I was so blown away when he uses the steps to teach addition and I thought it was such a clever way to teach mathematical concepts. This, I shall adopt in my future teaching for students with math difficulties.
Throughout the movie, I cannot help mopping my eyes away and even though I knew that my eyeliner would be badly smudge, I could not stop. It was almost like a tap, it went on and on. I could hear Ms Shifa, sobbing too and on different occasions, I sense people wiping away tears from the eyes as well. I was not alone.
This movie was simply clever, it was very well researched and I could not find anything to disagree with. Perhaps why it was extra touching for me, was the fact that this movie shall remain yet another movie, but here I am, along with the other SNOs who are constantly battling the same battles that the teacher (Aamir Khan) fought in the movie. This is indeed, our reality.
I shall be recommending the teachers of my school to watch this, they need it, trust me. If you are a teacher, parent, SNOs, this is a must watch. It will grab your emotions and make you appreciate God's given talents to each and every person, even when some talents are not academic.
