Giant strides in baby steps

Alex Coolman

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the third in a four-part series

focusing on the struggles and triumphs of the disabled, their families

and those who live and work with them.

COSTA MESA -- It’s a day for small things in Pat Balen’s class at

College Park Elementary School.

Balen’s group of third-graders has heard a story about a “teeny-tiny”

woman, a story that’s supposed to help their reading skills and improve

their understanding the concept of opposites, like small and large.

“There was a teeny-tiny woman,” the story begins. “She lived in a

teeny-tiny house in a teeny-tiny town.”

By the time a visitor arrives to talk with Balen, the exercise is

over, her students are at recess, and the 47-year-old teacher is

chuckling about the difficulty she sometimes has in making sure her

students are understanding their lessons.

“They’re very sweet,” she said. “They sit there and nod, and then you

ask them to get started and sometimes they don’t know what to do.”

Balen teaches in what is called an “instructional support program”

class, which provides special education services for kids that don’t

perform as well in school as conative tests indicate they should.

Though her students are third-graders, many of them have difficulty

with basic reading skills, or are in other ways not as advanced as most

kids their age.

When recess is over, the afternoon exercises proceed in the way they

often do in Balen’s class: at a slow pace, making small moves toward

comprehension.

She leads a unit on punctuation, helping the kids understand when to

use a period and when to use a question mark.

What’s not immediately evident from watching Balen, but what becomes

clear upon speaking with her, is the satisfaction she finds in her work.

She has a reason, one that goes deep, for connecting with the labor of

special education.

Balen’s son, David, has cerebral palsy. The condition affects the way

he walks, and it has also caused him to have learning disabilities.

That hasn’t stopped David from living a rich life: he’s now 19 years

old and a freshman at Santa Ana College.

When David was born, it changed the way Balen thought about her

connection to her work. She didn’t start out working in special

education.

“When I was initially a teacher, it wasn’t a field that I was

acquainted with,” she said.

But the process of raising her son gave Balen an empathy for the

disabled -- something that remains powerful in her.

“That’s really where my heart ended up being,” she said.

Lynda Van Kuren, spokeswoman for the Council for Exceptional Children,

a professional association for special educators, said Balen’s experience

is a common one.

“She’s not that unusual,” Van Kuren said. “Many, many times [teachers

who work with the disabled] have had direct contact” with disabilities in

their own lives.

The challenges of teaching special education can be daunting, Van

Kuren said. And it’s the people who are best able to relate to the

experience of the disabled who find it most rewarding.

“Quite honestly, special education can be very frustrating because the

kids’ progress is so slow,” she said.

But teachers learn to take satisfaction in giving of themselves and in

witnessing the minor triumphs of the school day, she said.

“It’s the little things,” Van Kuren said. “It’s the little, teeny baby

steps that make a difference.”

In her punctuation lesson, Balen keeps it simple.

“Whenever somebody asks a question,” she tells the class, “their voice

is going to go up a little bit at the end.”

Some of the students are clearly getting it, and they’re straining

forward in their seats. One boy seems bored, distracted and fidgety.

Balen works to bring them all along, pushing them gently through the

idea.

Reaching these students and making sure their schooling is meaningful

can be difficult, Balen said, but she doesn’t think it’s that complex.

And it’s not that different from the way she would treat her own son:

the teacher simply needs to believe that the child has the capacity to

learn, and that the teacher can help that learning take place.

“The rewards far outweigh the frustration,” she said.

“Number one, I love the children. And number two, I just delight and

take a great thrill in every little bit of progress they make.”