Bringing the world to school

For a few days each week, the world comes to Franklin Elementary School.

International students from Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands who are in the United States to learn about education are spending time in the Cape Girardeau elementary school each week.

The college students are part of an exchange program at Southeast Missouri State University. Most of their time in the classroom is spent working with small groups on reading or math lessons. But they've learned as much from the children as the children have learned from them.

Several of the children have asked the Irish teachers about leprechauns and the Spanish teachers about royalty. The teachers from the Netherlands had to teach a little geography to their classrooms since many didn't even know where the country was on a map.

Rhonda Dunham, principal at Franklin, said having so many international student teachers has been a bonus for the school. "We've all learned so much."

Franklin students "learn so much about cultures and people," she said. "Who's to say they will ever get a chance to go or meet these people except in this setting?"

And the added one-on-one attention in the classroom has helped give them an educational edge. "It doesn't matter that the teacher speaks with an accent," Dunham said.

The accents haven't really posed many problems for the international teachers. "They noticed the accent and thought it was interesting," said Irish student Kathryn Strange, who is teaching in a third-grade classroom.

Mostly the children have asked them questions about their countries and what life is like there -- whether or not they had television and computers was one of the first inquiries.

"They've asked the Spanish word for uncle and sister" and other family members, said Elena Infante, a Spanish teacher. And sometimes when they leave the room for another class, they'll say "adios," or "hola" upon returning, she said.

The greatest lessons for the teachers have been seeing how classrooms are structured and how the day's lessons are planned. Most of the international teachers have said American students spend more time in school each day and have more to learn.

In Ireland and Spain, the children don't begin their schoolday until 9 a.m. and they take more breaks. In the Netherlands, the students don't learn to read until they reach age 6. Kindergarten there is more like a preschool in America, said Marissa Van der Linden.

"They play much more and do a lot more with songs and stories," she said. In the Netherlands, the students would go to school fewer days per week but more weeks per year.

Annie Tahalea, who is also from the Netherlands, said both her country and America are filled with diversity. "So you see some similarities but the history is very different and so is discipline."

The students in America are much more disciplined, particularly when they walk in a line to another classroom or outdoors, the teachers said.

Dunham said the international student teachers "bring an awareness of the diversity of our cultures but also a sameness. You can compare and contrast educational systems but they have the same concerns we do. And it brings to our children a unique opportunity to learn about another culture and school system without having to be there."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126