The same is true in the film ‘’The Other Sister’’ where actress Juliette Lewis plays a strong-headed person with mental disability who struggles for independence from her family by trying to live and work on her own.

These scenes are not uncommon in progressive countries like the United States where employment opportunities are being opened to people with disabilities, both mental and physical. It is not surprising to find a person with Down Syndrome, for instance, pushing trolleys in San Francisco airport, or arranging books in the public library, or greeting shoppers in a suburban Wal-Mart. It may have taken long, long years but the functional among people with mental disabilities have slowly immersed themselves in the workplace and are being embraced, more than tolerated, by the society.

"But that is already ‘the’ideal world as far as the Philippines setting is concerned. Here, because there are millions of abled individuals who are unemployed, giving jobs to the disabled is the least priority of both the government and private employers,’’ lamented Gilbert Y. Leonor, president of Maryridge School for Special Children located in BF Homes, Parañaque City.

This sad societal truth however does not dampen the spirits of the people behind Maryridge School. Established in 2000 initially as a school for children of all ages with mental and developmental disabilities, Maryridge has since evolved into both an educational institution and a training center for pre-adolescent and adults with special needs with employment and livelihood as the main thrust.

Himself a parent of a 19-year-old special child, Leonor believes in his heart that the functional and trainable special children can be honed into productive individuals given the proper training and job coaching.

"The employment statistics for workers who are retarded is pessimistic, that is the truth. But most parents like myself, and professionals in the area of special education remain optimistic about the potential for providing training programs that will lead to meaningful employment,’’ Leonor explains.

Research indicates that with appropriate training, persons with retardation can hold down jobs with a good deal of success measured by such things as attendance, employer satisfaction, and length of employment.

With the number of the mentally disabled dramatically increasing, it should be noteworthy to find new competitive employment opportunities for them. Given proper training, people with exceptionalities can hold clerical jobs such as typing, word processing, bookkeeping, data processing, etc. Competitive employment is found possible for mild or moderate mentally retarded. It is just a matter of giving them skills specifically suited for an identified position.

Maryridge School holds its hopes up high. Its curriculum encourages its students not only to learn academics but also to adapt well to their environment by learning other practical life skills, safety skills, handing money (functional accounting skills), and other vocational skills.

About three years ago, it started its "internship’’ program where its students who are afflicted with autism, developmental delays, and mental retardation were taken to a packaging company once a week and were allowed to work about three hours a day, with close supervision by the teachers. Every Wednesday, the Pre-Voc class (from ages 12 years old and above) would trek to Diagem Packaging Systems Inc. in Las Piñas to experience work in the real sense of the word. The company repacked and distributed coffee, creamer and sugar s achets to various canteens, food establishments and retails stores.

This school year, Maryridge upped the ante and penetrated the ‘’corporate’’ world. Twice a week, the students go to work at Maxicare Healthcare in Makati City and immersed themselves in a ‘’real’’ job for three hours.

"We explained to the company our school’s mission and they expressed their readiness to be a partner in helping these children. We are so thankful for companies like Maxicare because they help us achieve our goal not only to train the children for possible employment but also to give them a sense of usefulness in the society,’’ explains Teacher Tet Tormon, Maryridge School directress.

Dressed in proper office attire, the students are assigned in various departments like underwriting, claims, administration, human resources, disbursement and accounting. They are tasked to do clerical work like filing, sorting, typing and encoding, with close teacher supervision.

In the classroom, the training is further reinforced with the teachers’use of self-instruction, self-monitoring and self-reinforcement techniques.

Over at McDonald’s in Las Piñas, another set of Maryridge students ‘’report for work’’ twice a week to be trained in various fast food tasks outside of the kitchen such as bussing out and wiping tables, opening the door, greeting diners, sweeping and mopping the floor, or fixing the newspapers.

"People would look at them but they eventually understand that these are people with special needs and should be treated with extra understanding,’’ says Teacher Che Samonte.

Other companies like the Ricky Reyes chain of salons have also signified their interest to help with the program of Maryridge School.

Plans to place its students in the actual workplace are also in the offing.

While sheltered workshops remain to be the common practice in training children with disabilities for more productive tasks, innovative transition programs such as what Maryridge School is doing is paving the way for more employers, and the society in general, to take a more favorable attitude toward hiring workers who are mentally retarded.

"Our program is going beyond the sheltered workshop where the children receive training and work with other workers with disabilities on jobs requiring relatively low skills. Our program may even be labeled as ambitious, or daring, but this is one of the ways to make persons with mental retardation achieve levels of independence in community living and employment that were never thought possible,’’ Leonor says.

It goes without saying that every parent like Leonor would like to see their children with special needs become independent and find ways to take care of themselves.

"It is our wish to see them fend for themselves, much more be accepted by ‘normal’ people. This is the best way to start that journey,’’ Leonor adds.