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MARCH 2025 THE REVIEW | 15 FEATURE “Children learn from having a teacher with a disability, that they can be openminded and they can feel confident to ask questions and accept differences.” When Stephen graduated from Wintec in 2012, he was 25 years old and was the first male to complete the course, and the first person living with Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi to do so. He quickly found work by walking into early childhood centres, rather than relying on the initial phone calls, introducing himself and asking about vacancies. Stephen loved working with the children, but the hardest part of being an ECE teacher and living with Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi, was the admin work that went with the role. “Things take me a bit longer. I couldn’t get the job done during work hours so I took it home. My work life started invading my personal life. That impacted my mental health. “On a Saturday morning, instead of enjoying the weekend I was opening the admin books. I was doing 60-70 hours a week so I could keep up.” So, in 2017 Stephen made a small, but vital tweak to his work. He gave up his full-time work as a permanent ECE teacher and began work as a reliever for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. “It’s about a balance between health, life and work,” he says. “When I was [working full time], I blamed a lot on my CP. ‘CP sucks.’ ‘It’s a curse.’ ‘It’s horrible.’” Once he took on relief work, Stephen says he “was able to open my life again”. He also began to look at CP as an opportunity to educate others and share about living life with a disability. “Kids are very forgiving and accepting. Because they have innocent minds, they love the world, they don’t question. “A few times I might have been asked ‘why do you talk like that?’ and I just say, ‘everyone speaks differently’. “Children learn from having a teacher with a disability, that they can be openminded and they can feel confident to ask questions and accept differences.” Stephen, husband to wife Lee and dad to their sons Macgyver, 2.5 years old, and Lokland, 3 months old, says he wants to educate people about disability. “I want to make people aware. If you’ve got a question – just ask. I’m very open. “My dream job would be to work in the disability sector mentoring, helping and coaching people.” Stephen has taken part in two Aspiring Leaders Forums, done a lot of mentoring and public speaking, including visiting schools to talk about being different and school bullying. He’s also facilitated a university workshop about being male, white and working in a Maori organisation, while living with a disability. Stephen says he was “fortunate enough to have an amazing upbringing and parents and brothers who just treated me as normal – whatever normal is”. “Growing up it was hard, because yes, I was bullied. I went through all that horrible bullying school stuff. But I never let it affect me. Opposite page: Stephen Bird has found a good balance between health, life and work. Above: Stephen loves working with children and seeing them learn new things. “I wanted to get my drivers licence – so I did. “I wanted to get a job – so I did. “I got married. I had children.” He’s also completed the Hamilton Half Marathon, an Outward Bound course and been on the Spirit of Adventure. “All that really opened my eyes up….’man, I can do stuff like this’.” Stephen says being a member of the Cerebral Palsy Society has “been amazing”. “I’ve been able to access so much - gym memberships, financial help to get equipment to make life a bit easier, advice. “I’ve taken up the opportunity when I’ve come across other people with CP to advocate for the CP Society.”