New teacher, Secretary of Education, musings

We have a new teacher, Eunice (pronounced "Ay-oo-nee-say"). She is taking over the class I've been working with. She has wanted to come to work with us for a while. Like Maria, she teaches mornings at the National School, another private school for the deaf, and loves the Lord.

Last week she worked alongside me, to learn the general routine, and this week she is teaching on her own, while I am busy prepping for the new classes in Sabana Perdida.

Monday will be our first day of classes at the other school. Please pray for our new teachers, that they will catch on quickly. Pray they will be creative. Pray they will be filled with love for these children, and see their potential. Pray that these children will respond to our love, and recognize its source, the Lord of love. Above all, we want them to know him.

Pray also for me, for wisdom in so many decisions being made, and for my health to hold up under all the extra work the new school brings.

A woman from the Secretary of Education came by today. Now we've been trying to get them to come for over a year, but when do they come? The day I leave to work on the other school! :) This visit is part of the process for having the school recognized by the government. I think I mentioned before, that that is how it's done here, in general. You start the school, then you work on recognition.

We do have a few things standing in our way. One is that they want us to have a library--as in a room dedicated for that purpose. Now that is kind of funny, because even most of the public schools don't have as many books as we do--two small bookcases full.

Another thing is that they want us to have an office. Sadly there is no space available. Our secretary works at a table out in the hall, and the file cabinet is in one of the classrooms. This is somewhat inconvenient, but actually functions, since there are only 41 students.

One other thing they would like: they want the teachers all to be working toward their masters degree. We would like to offer help toward further education as a job benefit at some point, but that may be a while.

All of our teachers are at the educational level called "technico," which is about the equivalent of an AA degree. (The children are in beginning levels, equivalent to preschool through about second grade.) We believe our teachers are the best in the country. Very few teachers can sign fluently, and even fewer have the amount of experience our teachers have in working with deaf children.

One of the distinctives of our school is that we are constantly working on our own teaching methods and materials, developing more and increasingly effective ways to reach these children. We don't consider ourselves to have arrived. We press on.

I remember a quote at a workshop I attended years ago. The presenter, speaking of teaching experience, said that some teachers have taught for 15 years, and others have taught one year fifteen times! We want to be the former, not the latter.