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| Park Se-ho, left, who has been serving at a local kindergarten helping children with disabilities for his alternative military service, poses with Military Manpower Administration Commissioner Mo Jong-hwa at the Government Complex Daejeon, Tuesday, after receiving an award for his essay about his service for the conscription agency's annual essay contest. Courtesy of Military Manpower Administration |
By Jung Da-min
Park Se-ho, 26, has been serving his alternative military service at a public kindergarten in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, since late August 2019, taking care of children with disabilities. Park recently wrote about his experience of working at the kindergarten in an essay for the Military Manpower Administration's annual essay contest for those carrying out alternative military service duties at public facilities.
In the essay, Park said he was unhappy when he first got assigned to the kindergarten, as he had no experience working with young children, especially those with disabilities.
He said he had difficulty communicating with two children in particular; one with autism and another with intellectual disabilities. As the majority of Park's energy was focused on trying to protect the children and keep them from harm, he found himself becoming frustrated when he couldn't understand what the children wanted in certain situations.
"After about two months adjusting to my job at the kindergarten, I started to look back on what I had been studying before enlistment. Majoring in neuroscience, I had a great interest in studying the relationship between the brain and linguistics as well as related technologies, learning methods and education systems," Park said.
Park said while reflecting on his interest in the correlation between the brain and linguistics he came to ponder the very meaning of disability.
"I feel like now I've got an answer to the question 'What is disability?' I have come to the conclusion that disability is not like a disease or an illness and should be accepted as a defining characteristic of a person. It can be difficult for people with disabilities to live a normal life in society and in particular for children with special needs, they need help from adults to ensure their safety."
Park said he started to try to understand what the children wanted after adjusting his view of disabilities and this led to a change in his behavior when taking care of them.
When helping the child with autism write a diary entry, for example, he started to let the child take a more active role while minimizing the amount of help he gave and gave more attentive to what the child was saying. He also started to feel more comfortable helping the child with intellectual disabilities, as he learnt more about the child.
"The lessons I learnt through last year's experiences helped me understand more about children and view things from their perspective. Although the two children left the kindergarten after graduation, it brought me comfort to meet new children and learn other things from them," Park said.
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| Park Se-ho, left, plays with a child at a public kindergarten in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where he has been serving his alternative military service since late August 2019. Courtesy of Military Manpower Administration |
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