Class 2 - Tuesday, February 7th 2012

Special Education in Taipei

Tonight's class started with a guest speaker, Mr. Uwe Maurer.  Mr. Maurer is a former principal of Morrison Academy and now works with a support group for people with disabilities, including with local elementary schools in Taipei, Taiwan Sunshine.  Mr. Maurer has three children, and his middle child was born with Cri du Chat syndrome, often called Cat's Cry syndrome.  He gave us a lot of first-hand information on the special education situation in Taipei.  He said that there were three main types of special education outlets in Taipei:

1.  There are four large special education schools in Taipei:

1. Tianmu School for the Mentally Handicapped (about 300 students)
2. Wenshan Special Education School near the zoo in Muzha (about 300 students, K-12)
3. A school for the hearing impaired in Zhongshan/Wanhua district 
4. A school for the visually impaired in Tianmu (about 200 students)

2.  There are about 1-2 public schools in each district in Taipei with better special education programs.  He mentioned that Jingmei Elementary School has a well-equipped special education program with about 40-45 students.

3.  Regular local elementary schools are supposed to have special education classes but if the school is too small, then they won't offer such a class and send the students to another nearby school.  He mentioned that Guting Elementary School is such a school.  They have a special education classroom with 1 teacher and 2 assistants.  He said that the classroom was for those who aren't able to function in the regular classroom.  He also said that there were about 1000 students in self-contained elementary school special education classes in Taipei (excluding special schools), and about 10,000 students in resource room / learning support classrooms.

One interesting point I took away from the talk was that his thoughts on the quality of services available for therapy in Taiwan.  He thought that the physical, occupational and speech therapy provided in Taiwan was better than that in the U.S.   

Mr. Maurer also gave us some useful pointers about working (not dealing) with parents of special needs children.  He said that he thought there were 3 general parent responses from parents with a child with a disability.  

1. Victim Mentality - those parents who feel that the world has crashed around them and feel that nothing is going to work anymore.
2. Crusaders - parents take on the disability as a cause and their entire life revolves around being an advocate for their child.  
3. The middle of the previous two.  

He described what his day involved and asked us to remember that parents of children with disabilities are constantly exhausted, and to keep that in mind when "dealing" with parents.  

I found hearing a first hand perspective to be an invaluable learning tool.  Reading from the textbook about the U.S. situation made me often think about what it would be like for a parent of a child with physical disabilities in Taiwan.  Mr. Maurer was an inspiring speaker and this passion for the topic was truly great to see.