🚀 go-pugleaf

     As the world shrinks we have more and more children in our schools, both private and public, who come from countries outside of the United States.  Some are immigrants, others refugees, or sojourners (whose families expect to move on to another country or area of the US).  A number ofour students may be Third Culture Kids (TCK) who live in communities which do not represent either their own nations or the nation in which they are situated - diplomats' children, for example.  
     I want to contact people who work in schools that serve children from other countries along with children from the community in which the school is located.  The school where I work is on the edge of a university campus. It is a neighborhood school sponsored by the town, and its neighborhood is the family housing owned by the University; therefore,families of foreign students and visiting faculty attend the school.
    I am quite certain that there are many schools with similar opportunities and challenges - student bodies with members who speak as many as 30 or 40 languages as well as English (to varying degrees); a high degree of transiency at odd times of the school year; parents from many cultures whose expectations about schooling and parent school contacts vary widely.  Such enormously diverse school populations are not unique to the US.  Theyare found in many parts of the world.
    Let's start some dialogue about these schools and their communities. 
What do you see as the issues in your school?  How do you meet the wide array of needs and abilities of your students and their parents?  
How do you prepare children who are long-term residents of your area to be receptive to strangers?  
             Hoping to hear from lots of folks, and especially in the New England area,              Carol Rundberg 
                                              


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Internet: Carol.Rundberg@f110.n321.z1.fidonet.org