Migrant Tamil children embrace Canadian schooling: Report

They prefer sliced apples and oranges to oatmeal bars at snack time, can’t get enough of singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and don’t mind getting homework; in fact, some clamour for it.

 

Those are some of the observations of three B.C. teachers who have been running classes for the Tamil migrant children who arrived on a cargo ship this past summer from Sri Lanka.

 

Pilar Spratt, Joan Peddie and Cora Kinoshita -- on-call teachers trained to instruct students with limited English skills -- told Postmedia News that what has struck them most about the children is their resilience.

 

It appears that the three-month ocean voyage still weighs on some of the children’s minds, as evidenced by their numerous unprompted drawings of ships, the teachers said. But the children have shown no outward signs of trauma.

 

“They’re just happy,” Spratt said. “If there is [trauma], I’m not seeing it.”

 

The half-day classes for children aged five to 13 began last month as a joint effort by the Burnaby school district, Ministry of Children and Family Development and Ministry of Education. There’s also a separate program for preschool children and their mothers.

 

The sessions are run out of classrooms at the Burnaby Youth Custody Centre, where the children are staying with their mothers while federal officials sort out their identities.

 

Though the children are not officially detained, provincial officials decided it was best to house them with their mothers.

 

Fathers and single women are being detained in other facilities.

 

The teachers admit that at first, they struggled to get the children to pay attention and follow classroom rules.

 

“No share, no play,” Kinoshita said she would tell her students.

 

“We needed to be firm to get them used to being in school,” Peddie said.

 

But over time, they’ve learned to raise their hands, sit on the carpet without fuss, take turns with the toys and line up in an orderly fashion when it’s time to leave the classroom.

 

“Now, we have a rhythm going,” Peddie said.

 

The children are eager to learn.

 

Some have asked if they can take their worksheets and booklets back to their residences, Kinoshita said.

 

“They have aspirations. They’re eager. They’ve asked for homework,” Spratt said, adding that some students have expressed desires to become doctors, teachers or computer engineers.

 

Because the students have limited or no English skills, the teachers often communicate using hand gestures and facial expressions.

 

Through song and repetition, the children have learned the days of the week, different parts of the body, and how to describe the weather.

 

Pointing out the window, a teacher might ask: “Is it raining outside?”

 

“No!” the children will reply in unison.

 

Two words with which the children have become familiar are “hearing” and “release” -- referring to the detention-review hearings that their mothers and fathers have been attending periodically since their arrival on Aug. 13.

 

The teachers said students will routinely walk in to class and announce in broken English, “Today father hearing” or “Release, tomorrow.”

 

The school program started with 41 preschool and school-aged children. As of Thursday, the number had fallen to 22 because some parents and their children have been freed.

 

Saying goodbye is never easy, the teachers said.

 

Some of the children press their hands together in front of their chests as a way of expressing their gratitude. Canadian teachers are much nicer than ones in Sri Lanka, the children have said.  – (The Vancouver Sun)