Interview and Reflection 1

Early Childhood Disability Interview and Reflection

John Chanmin Park – 500896795

Ryerson University

Dr. Fiona Moola

CLD 241 – Section 011 – Families in Canadian Context

Due October 11th, 2019

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To introduce my interviewee, he currently my field educator for CLD 262 and he teaches

a kindergarten classroom with 31 students with one child diagnosed with autism. Mr. T has been

teaching for 11 years. He taught five years of home school half time withdrawal, two years of

MID (Mild Intellectual Disability), three years of diagnostic kindergarten, and is now onto his

2nd year of teaching a JK/SK split kindergarten classroom. He has been interested in children

with disabilities since high school where he volunteered at Holland Bloorview and work with

children with disabilities. Looking at Mr. T’s life, he has worked in home school half time

withdrawal environment, MID classrooms, diagnostic kindergarten, and kindergarten

classrooms. Home school half time withdrawal is a classroom setting where half the times at

school was spent with their home room teacher while half of the times at school was spent in a

classroom with him and other educators. Students can be of various grades and educators and

students work together to follow the same curriculum as other children but with extra support

and attention that they require. MID classrooms are smaller sized classrooms comprised of 10-15

students of various disabilities. Each child got their own individual education plan and worked in

adaptive functions. Diagnostic kindergarten is a classroom of much smaller sizing of 5-8 children

and the age range is all within 2 years. Each child has different developmental level due to age

but because of the much smaller classroom sizes, they are able to get the attention and the help

that they need.

Based on Mr. T.’s perspective, the barriers and the issues he faced while teaching mainly

came from the ministry, the education board, and the children. When it came to children, much

of the issues were regarding their behaviour. It was less to do with an actual social issue or

barrier but difficulty from physically being drained and being attacked. He believed that when it

comes to children, their needs is not a barrier. He did not consider it a disability unless it was not
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accommodatable and if you can accommodate, it is not a disability. The only barrier he was

when it came to children was the attitudes he might have towards the students and his beliefs of

the students that might hinder the children. When it comes to the ministry and the education

board, he found that much of the problems lied within the certain idea that they had on what a

classroom should look like and the closing down of the ME (multiple exceptional) classes. Due

to the closing down of ME classrooms, many children with LD (learning disabilities) or autism

ended up being placed in MID classrooms. The barrier was not the process of teaching the child

but more of classroom sizing and due to the vast number of LDs, it became harder to streamline

an education program for each student. Safety also became an issue for not only him but for

other students as well. The board also did not always provide a special needs assistant and

because their main priority was the safety and wellbeing of children, the amount of teaching and

types of teaching he was able to provide became watered down. The ministry and the board

control the funding and if they are not able to provide enough educators and smaller classroom

sizes, it becomes an issue. Mr. T. had very positive outlook on children with disabilities and he

even believed that all students deserve the care and attention that they need in order to come out

of school not as just a graduate but as a human with the ability to love and care for others with

high expectations for each other as well as themselves.

For me, because I have my placement under Mr. T., and this field placement is the first time that

I am working with children with disabilities, my image, view, and understanding of them is

heavily influenced by Mr. T. When it comes to issues, I believe that there are many issues mainly

due to the education funding cut that directly impacts us all. Thousands of teachers have lost

jobs, there are changes to the autism funding, and classroom sizes are much larger. (Chen, 2019)

This is an issue because as I currently work with a child with disability, the classroom size is of
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31 students with 1 child with autism. Although the number of children with special needs is

small, the amount of effort, attention and time that goes into that one child is drastically higher

than any other children. I believe that one of the ways that this interview has allowed me to

reflect is to genuinely care for not only the children that I am involved with but for others as

well. I have always known of the education cuts that Ford has committed yet it was very hard for

me to relate because I did not see the direct impact firsthand. As I am currently teaching in a

kindergarten classroom, I have realized the importance of classroom sizes and what education

funding really means to not only educators but for children as well. At the school that I have my

placement at, many of the teachers are forced to buy their own teaching materials due to the lack

of funding for materials and as mentioned above, due to the high number of children in my

classroom, I am not able to provide the satisfactory amount of care and attention for each child in

my class. After the interview and reflection, I genuinely believe that it has allowed me to see the

issue of education funding cuts to be a larger problem then I have seen it before.

When it comes to barriers, I am reminded of what Mr. T. said about our views and pre-

existing beliefs about that child. Until this year, because of my lack of experience and knowledge

of disabilities, I have always believed that disabilities meant that they are not as capable as a

“normal person” and that they require constant help and support. From the interview and

lectures, I have learned that children with disabilities are capable and just function on a different

spectrum. Each child has their own set of needs and they did not all fit into a certain formula, but

it was okay to be different. Although different, each child was deserving of love and care. As an

educator, my goal was not to give not what they want but to provide what they need. And to

know what the child needs, I had to know and understand each child personally rather than

categorizing them as a child with LD or a child with autism. This social barrier that I’ve had of
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seeing children with disabilities as incapable was broken when I met the student at my placement

with autism. He does not have the best communication skills and physical abilities of other

children, but I have learned that he is one of the most caring children that I have ever met.

Always rushing over to help other children zip up their jacket to helping the new student adjust

to the classroom, I would not have expected this if I still had my barrier of viewing children with

disabilities as incapable.

Challenges now exist due to the education funding cuts and one of them is closing down

of ME classrooms. As MID classroom gets larger, the challenge of larger classroom sizes and

each child requiring more attention comes up. How are educators to cater to more students yet

continue to have programs for each child designed specifically for them. The responsibilities of

an educator became too grand and it not only presents them with more burden and pressure but

the children with less opportunity and takes away their potential as a human being. This

challenge could be simple solved by increase of education funding, but it is not that simple. I

believe that the solution is the change the society’s view of not only children with special needs

but also their view and understanding of education. I believe that the general population’s view

of children with disabilities is similar to mine when I have not yet worked with any children with

disabilities, and if the general population views children with disabilities as incapable of learning

and almost as a burden on society, it makes sense that special needs funding has been decreased.

To me, the solution is not to say blindly that education funding needs to increase but the

population’s understanding of disabilities and the understanding of importance of education

needs to increase as well. Once the population’s understanding of disabilities and importance of

education increases, it is only natural that the education funds will increase resulting in smaller
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classroom sizes, more materials and tools to educate children, and more specialized classrooms

for children with special needs.

To conclude, I believe that this interview assignment has really broadened my

understanding of children with disabilities as well as my understanding of the education system

in Toronto. My ignorance and prejudice have been changed to sympathy and passion to care and

protect those that cannot protect themselves. I thank Mr. T. for allowing me to interview him and

going in depth to provide me the necessary information as well as take the time to explain many

of the terms that I did not understand.

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References

Chen, R. (2019, May 30). What Exactly Is Happening To Ontario's Education System? What

You Need To Know. Retrieved from https://www.chatelaine.com/news/doug-ford-

education-changes-ontario-cuts/.