getting into the schools

Yesterday I shadowed the principal of the Special Education Centre in Vieux Fort. This school serves a large swath of the southern part of the country, with 89 students and 10-11 teachers. I learned a lot in two general categories:

1. What the Special Education Centre does.

In order to have children in attendence, they screen every kindergartner in the area. They test cognitive, physical, developmental, communicative, and visual abilities. I'm not sure exactly what the minimums or maximums for enrollment are, but this screening has helped get students in to the school who would otherwise be doing very poorly in other schools, and many who would not be in schools at all.

At the school they have different goals for different disabilities. For those with behavioral problems and learning disabilities, the goal is to get them to a point where they can reenter other schools. For those with serious developmental impairments, the goal is to get them functional and self-sufficient. It varies child by child.

The principal of this school also keeps tabs on students at other schools with learning or other disabilities, to see how they're doing and to get help for them when possible.

2. What Principals do.

The principal checked in on the classrooms in the morning, then for a while was in a room where some physical therapy was going on, with some people from a different organization who had some tips for helping kids with a certain condition (I forgot to ask what condition it was). At one point she was asked to come outside to buy food from a man who was delivering it (I've seen him before, when he loaded something like 6 large bags of coconuts and bananas onto a bus on the side of the highway between VF and Choiseul). She bargained with him on some things (the pumpkins weren't ripe), and scolded him for other things (avocado/pears should NOT be touching citrus fruits), then paid. Around 11 there was a meeting between a group based in Castries that helps and monitors the academic activities of secondary school students around the island, and with someone from a gov't group something like Welfare of the Blind. We took lunch, and then went to some stores looking for a washer for the water cooler. She did some filing, delivered something to the District 6 Counselor in a different building a block away, and I left.

I didn't realise all the different tasks necessary for such a job, especially where there isn't a lot (if any) office staff like secretaries employed.

Overall it was a really neat experience.

After the shadowing, I had some time, so I went over to the grocery store and looked at prices of things, checked to make sure tortillas or masarina aren't available (I couldn't even find corn meal, but I'm sure it's somewhere), and picked up some chips and a chocolate & hazelnut bar. I'm saving those for another time. I walked around downtown for a while, looking into the sports store to see prices on weights (I think I'll get an exercise mat and a medicine ball when I move out), the library (which is only children's books, and is tiny), and had some ice cream (which was tasty and very cheap--$1.75 EC for a single scoop cone!). Then I walked over to VF Primary for a meeting for the parents by the Grade 4 teachers and principal.

I've attended about 4 meetings on different things now. Two of them went pretty smoothly, two of them dragged on for a while, mainly because different people repeatedly repeated their points repeatedly.

At this meeting one thing I noticed was that the teachers and principal took on an accusatory tone with the parents, saying that many of them put sugary things in their children's lunches, that they don't pay attention to their school work, etc etc. I think these things may be the case, but I also think there are much better ways of expressing these ideas without putting people off. Considering not every parent showed up, it's likely that those who did are not necessarily the ones committing these offenses. I know that if I were a parent sitting in that room, I would be upset by the way the teachers were talking to me. I'm starting to see how it really is that each group blames the other for the children's poor behavior or performance. I wonder, though, if the parents received the same message I did, because it might just be that this is how people talk to one another.

We'll see.