Film on local special needs school cops ‘Best Documentary’ award in U.S.

Apr 28, 2019 Special Person

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Most people, if not all, have had their lives touched by a person or even two, with special needs. However, some of us barely know what to do when confronted with such persons. But then there are those who go the ext

ra mile to ensure that they can develop the capacity to help those with special needs find meaning to their existence.
One individual who has gone above and beyond in this regard is a woman by the name of Marcia Smith. Smith is currently the Principal of a privately-operated special needs school – Gifted Hands – which she opened to the public in 2012.
The school, situated at Parade Street, Kingston, Georgetown, caters to students with various special needs ranging from Down syndrome to autism.
Catering to the education needs of her students came naturally to Smith, as even before that, she was dealing with her own son, Jared, who was diagnosed with autism.
Driven by the passion to ensure that he got exposure to a good quality education, which helped to prepare him to be taught in the mainstream school system, Marcia decided to put measures in place to lend similar support to students who needed even more help than her son.
Although she has benefited from formal teaching and has done extensive reading on her own, it was the hands-on experience with Jared that gave her the extra vigour and resilience to cope with her needy students.

She has been deemed a gem of a person for lending this level of support to many parents and guardians who can ill-afford to give their special needs children the attention they deserve.
Although she has long been hoping for the corporate kind of support to secure a building for her school, Marcia’s work has not gone unnoticed. Just recently her school gained an achievement of a lifetime – something that even Marcia hadn’t envisaged in her wildest dream.
A glowing Marcia was elated when she learnt that a film about her school had received the award for ‘Best Documentary’ in a competition adjudged at a university in Los

Angeles, California, United States.
Titled “Big things have small beginnings,” the documentary on ‘Gifted Hands’ won many hearts after it was viewed at the Loyola Marymount University [LMU] – School of Film and Television.
LMU is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. The University is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and universities and one of five Marymount institutions of higher education.
Upon viewing the production, many staffers and students immediately fell in love with the work being done by Marcia at her school, together with the support of her staff.
She was quickly labelled a hero who opted to embrace the most suitable name for her school [Gifted Hands], as it is with ‘gifted’ hands that she and her staffers are able to get through each day the doors of her school are opened.
Gifted Hands was nominated for the LMU-Film ‘Outside the Frame’ awards under two categories – Best Documentary and the Faculty award for Promotion of Social Justice. Gifted Hands was awarded as the Best Documentary.
The film maker, Father Ramesh Vanan Aravanan, S.J., is convinced “the film has a soul and it’s a great story that needs to be told.” He gave praise and honour to God for giving him the opportunity to tell real-life stories such as those that occur within the confines of entities like the Gifted Hands School.
It is the expectation of Father Aravanan that the documentary will help to create awareness in the society, and many more may come forward to help the special needs children of Guyana, in much the way that Marcia has.
In addition to the interactions with her students, the documentary also captures the heartening testimonials of a number of parents whose children benefit from the services offered at the Gifted Hands School. They expressed profound gratitude for the work being done by Marcia.
Though to the normal person her school is made up of a single room located within a bigger educational institution [Chase Academy], to the children she attends to five days a week, it is the beginning of learning, which often starts with sitting and develops into paying attention, though their ages range from younger than nine to older than 40.
Marcia’s classroom understandably does not mirror the mainstream school system, but it does incorporate teaching guidelines from the Ministry of Education, governed by a daily timetable.
She confided during an interview that “it is not the easiest task to teach a child who gives you no eye contact and has an attention span of zero, but there is no way that I am going to give up on any of them. They are all special in their own way and they are unique gifts, and as we all know, a lot of times we have to open a gift before we can really see its beauty. So I will keep working with them until they find their purpose in this life, and I know there is a purpose for each of them,” said a smiling Marcia.
A typical school week begins with the reciting of the National Pledge and then the National Anthem, and sometimes her classroom is flooded with singing voices, though not all in harmony. Reciting of the days of the week is also a major part of classroom sessions, as is awareness of various holidays and other significant days and weeks of the year.
The highpoint of most of her students’ day is colouring time, which often sees them devoting much care and attention to their colouring piece of choice. However, Marcia has learnt that nothing surpasses oral teaching, backed by rewards, which often come in the form of something edible.
Though her voice is sometimes drowned out by uncontrollable wails and mild tantrums, Marcia, by a mere glance, is able to discern her students’ needs and appease their concerns with absolute certainty. There are times that their needs are met by a mere hug from the ever-so attentive Marcia, who revealed that each child is treated with the love and compassion that she demonstrates to her own children, since she learnt just under a decade ago that, “to do for others what you would like them to do for you” is an important trait to embrace.
Despite the fact that compassion is an absolute necessity in the classroom, a smile from Marcia is not always guaranteed, since, according to her, “as special as they are, they are smart enough to take my smile for granted.” In a single word, Marcia sums up her work in the classroom -“satisfying”.
“At the end of the school day I can laugh, because even though the day might be stressful, there is something that I would’ve done that, even in some small way, helped to make a child’s life a little better; they gain a little bit more understanding and can do something more for themselves.”

 

 

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