Jehan at Beaconhou$e

It's been 5 months that Jehan's been at school. I remember his 1st day....

We woke up earlier than usual to make sure that we had plenty of time to give him an adequate breakfast, beat traffic and reach the school with time to spare so that he'll get a feel of his new school. And we did, along with other parents who had the same idea. There were the super-rich parents with their Mercs and Beemers, designer clothes, shoes and handbags...all dolled up. And there was me and Shahirah...

After a short briefing and mass introductions to the school's key personnel and class teachers by Mr Xavier, the children were told that they would be assigned classes named after famous musicians: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Strauss. Jehan's teacher in Strauss is Puan Satku, a mature, soft-spoken lady who seemed Zen-like with an extremely hug threshold for nonsense from the kids before she tears them limb from limb and hangs them for all to see.

We told her about Jehan's condition and his many quirks. She just listened and said sagely that he'll have fun because it's an extension of kindergarten with plenty of play and activities. We felt assured that she would take Jehan and his 19 classmates under her wing with little problem.

He was taken up to his class on Level 1 but stopped at the door. It was only after some coaxing from his Mama that he went in and sat down. We moved to the Cafeteria for a drink as advised by Mr Xavier in his briefing session, but there were easily more than 20 sets of parents who either didn't understand English or had hearing problems. They were not only at the classroom corridors, they were IN THE DARNED CLASSROOMS!!!! What do we do with these people!

Back to the Cafeteria...

That's where we met Rika and her husband, whose name escapes me. Their son Ethan is a very cute little boy with Oriental eyes, squinting at everyone and everything. We could tell immediately that he was special as he walked with his knees always bent so that he could balance better and not fall. We found out from Rika that he has epilepsy and vision problems. He wasn't wearing the special glasses that day as it was being made or repaired. That's why he needed to squint.

Then, there's Nicholas. He's 8, but is repeating Year 1. He's also special, with a very short attention span and in his own world. He'll just up and leave his class, walking around the school compound, the Lord and Master of Beaconhou$e.

Rajiv is a young man who will not acknowledge or speak to anyone unless he's comfortable with them. So say his parents. I hope he gets over this condition real soon.

Sure, they're but a handful in the school and I consider myself very fortunate to have been given Jehan to love and care for. His condition is a mild inconvenience compared to what the other parents are going through to bring up their special children.

Thank you, Almighty!

Jehan

Jehan had always been special. In more ways that I can think of.

His heartbeat has always been rapid. To the extent that the paediatrician recommended that we see a specialist to rule out that he had a problem with his ticker back when he was a week old. That was an "uh oh" moment. I remember Shahirah and I feeling devastated and helpless again. Why? It was very much like when we first found out about Putu's condition. But, the feeling of helplessness struck us much closer to home that time. Our Jehan...

Alhamdulillah, Jehan's OK.

Back to Jehan being special...

Well, he didn't start to walk until he was 15 months old. He began speaking later than the other kids his age. Once he was ready, though, he picked up the skill by leaps and bounds. Now, we need to tell him to stop. And he does his own narrations when playing the recently bought PS2 or when he's at the laptop playing online games.

He didn't want to go "potty" until he was 5. It was very hard for me to walk out with XXL-sized disposable diapers and the curious looks on the faces of the checkout person or the guy behind me in the queue. I remember vividly following the advice of the wise that children needed to be "trained". So, we "trained" him one night on the potty that we bought for him  and out of desperation, we told him that he couldn't get off of it until he "went". It was a long, long wait and it ended with him falling asleep on the potty. I felt like a monster for making him do that. And I know that Shahirah didn't feel like a million bucks either.

But once he was ready (many months later), he went on his own. Without being prompted. He just said that he needed "to go" and then went into the bathroom and sat on the throne as if he'd done it a million times before. And it just went on from there as if nothing earlier happened. You should have seen the grin on my face...

We also gently prodded him to read, introducing him to Ladybird readers with funky titles like, "Sheriff Showoff" and "Stunt Duck", among many. I remember reading to him the book that we bought a day earlier and reading it to him. I was reading it to him in bed and he was reading it with me, prompting me with the words from the coming pages. Only, he wasn't looking at the pages. He was about to nod off, lying on his side. Away from the book. He had memorized the book from the night before. From what he had heard me read and pointing at the pics on the pages. I didn't know whether to start worrying or celebrate. I had read somewhere that dyslexics have amazing memory as one of their many talents to cope with their condition.

His attention span is shorter than the other kids so he had to be constantly engaged in order to stay focused with whatever he was doing. His writing skills are improving but you should have seen what it was like before!!! He writes his name really well but there will be the odd "mirrored" letter J, B, P, D etc.

So, we brought him to Singapore to see Phaik Soo who was trained in the Ron Davis method. She couldn't confirm it then as he was only about 5, but based on the finding that his dominant eye, hand and leg weren't consistent, it was another indicator that he might have the condition that Robin Williams, Thomas Edison, Picasso(among many others) have. Okay, okay. Leonardo Da Vinci was dyslexic too. You knew that.

Back to Jehan. 

You can ask him to count and he'll gladly do that for you when he's in the mood. But ask him, "What comes after (pick any number) and he'll look at you and give you a response. Sometimes the answers would be right, sometimes close while others would be way off. And then the inevitable "I don't want to do this any more, Daddy".

We'll have to bring him to Phaik Soo again next year to see what the situation with Jehan is.

As I'm mostly at work and Shahirah has time during the day, we registered him at the primary school near Grandpa's house. It's a short 10 to 20 metre walk from door to door. But.....

The headmistress and the teachers that she passed that day didn't seem friendly at all. No acknowledgement to the anxious parent-with-the-kid-in-tow, no friendly smile. A warm hello would have been cause for a small kendhuri.

During Eid when Weng Soon came over and the conversation turned towards Hoi Yen's success in $ri KDU, I was convinced that the difference in the premium that you pay for these $chools with the additional activities and meals and the teacher-student-parent relationship was worth it.

And I'm also convinced that Jehan would cope better in a less-crowded environment with better supervision and monitoring while at school. This he wouldn't be getting at government schools where he would not be noticed, ignored even, flying below radar. I would have difficulty coping with the situation if Jehan was miserable at school. In fact, I'd be absolutely heartbroken.

So, the decision has been made. The deposit has been paid to Beaconhou$e and we'll just have to hope for the best when Jehan goes to Year 1 next year.

I know I'll be the proud, tears-running-down-his-cheek parent when his first day at $chool comes around.

I love you, Jehan.

Update 2009:

Jehan is now in Year 2 Rembrandt.

Sending him to Teacher Sun Sun in Klang every Wednesday has helped him with his reading ability. He's now able to manage the Ladybird books, actually reading them and not just reciting the words from his amazing memory.

At Beaconhou$e, he is taken out from his regular class about 4 hours in the school day to be tutored with 3-4 other kids.

He's doing great. I would know.

A Repost...

Thursday, October 21, 2004

A Year of Blogging

It's the 1st week of Ramadhan and surprisingly, it has been going smoothly for me this year. InsyaAllah, I'll get through it with little problem.

So, what's new?

Well, Jehan is now 3 1/2 years old. His Mama has just taken up a job with her friend from the Qigong group. So we decided that we'd let him try Smartreaders, more for him to socialise with other kids than anything else. Fortunately, the place at Mutiara Damansara also provides daycare facilities. We knew he'd be okay as he always gets comfortable with other people around him real quick or doesn't at all.

I left my position at a consultancy company in January 2004. The project that they took me on for didn't materialise although it was given approval in principle earlier. I then spent a couple of months lounging around, attending interviews and invested in a company started by Khairi.

After several start and stops, I decided that I had enough of Khairi as a business partner. I hope the money that went to him was spent wisely. I won't bother about asking for the money back because it will just be another source of pain that would taint a friendship that started when we were both 16.

Then there is Che Lan. He made me Associate Director with his company. I was to be paid for the time that I put in preparing presentations, attending meetings and such. I never saw the money that I had earned. What hurt me more was the knowledge that the company was behind in paying their employees by more than a month while he drives his Volvo.

I thought he had potential to be really successful when we first met in the 1980's. Seeing how he operates leaves me with no wonder about the loss of his major accounts and the steady, relatively easy revenue. Good luck, buddy. I hope that my first impression holds true and that you would turn out the successful and assertive entrepreneur that I thought you would be.

Deng took the VSS that he was offered from one of the Big 5 consulting companies. He laid low for a while before hooking up with Zaidi. Zaidi was my junior by about 2 years in Bukit Bintang. He set up a company with Ahmad and managed to bag the Pos Laju account. We also got to do the Business Process Reengineering portion and Change Management at MOHR.

It's amazing how Malaysian business works. The Bumi company gets the contract for Phase 2 of a MOHR project, then subs it out 100% to a non-Bumi company. They then found out that Change Management refers to more than logging the Requests for Change and making the changes to the system and that they also did not have the expertise in Business Process Reengineering. So, the Sub Con then further subs it out to us. It serves the first clueless Bumi company right...throw away the opportunity to build your own expertise and experience when trusted with it. I believe the word is “Amanah”.

There goes the chance of employing deserving Bumi IT graduates and giving them the window to flex their knowledge harvested over 4 years of slogging at the University. But, then again...the words slogging and Bumi in a sentence cannot be right...

So their loss is our gain, but there is little to rejoice in this hollow victory. I will be here at Putrajaya till January 2006, InsyaAllah, and hope to give some semblance of order and value to the taxpayers of Malaysia when these clowns implement the system.

However, the reality of making sure of this is very dim as Change Management and Business Process Reengineering are but 2 very small packages in the whole scheme of a system implementation.

So, we'll see...