Learning Is Caring
Friday, February 03, 2012
Today was a great day at Kopila Valley. We invited children from the local deaf school, Siddha Bahira, over for some special Friday activities. Siddha Bahira is a small government funded school for the deaf, founded by Peace Corps volunteers some 20 years ago (although I'm not exactly sure of the exact timing.) There are currently a total of 35 students mostly ages 6-17 who are hearing impaired. We decided for community service month it would be nice to have an exchange and host the Siddha Bhaira kids at our school for a day.
When I was a little girl I went to George C. Baker Elementary School in Moorestown, NJ. Baker was a really great school that gave me some good memories. I am a product of free public school education and truly believe that good teachers and good schools make all the difference in the world. More than anything, I remember Dr. Bucco, our school's principal and how he drilled the school motto "Learning is caring" over and over again into our heads each month at school assemblies. "The golden rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated," he used to say every month. That saying has stuck with me my entire life.
One of my most vivid memories from my early education was learning sign language. Baker School had a special program for kids who were deaf and my classrooms in first and second grade were right across the hall from the classrooms for the deaf. Libby and I both took sign language classes and became friends with two girls our age who were hearing impaired. Their names were Danielle and Brianna and it was through them that we were really able to pick up on a lot of sign language. We left Baker School and lost touch with Brianna and Danielle but I think I can speak for Lib when I say that they both made a distinct impression on our childhoods. In fact, there was a long period of time when all I wanted to be when I grew up was a sign language teacher.
This is the story I told during our assembly today along with all the sign language I could remember. "I love you." "What is your name?" "friends," "mother and father" and how to clap by raising your hands in the air and shaking them. The chairman of the deaf school got up and talked about ways to talk and communicate with people who can't hear. He taught us the numbers and the alphabet and the importance of friendship and acceptance for kids who can not hear or speak. All of our students really got to imagine what it would be like living in a world without sound.
After the assembly, we split up into different classrooms and learned sign language from the students themselves. It was absolutely amazing to see the kids learn how to communicate without being able to speak. They wrote things on paper and passed them back and forth and gave introductions and sign language lessons on the white board. For the first time walking through the halls of Kopila Valley, filled with 300 children, you could not hear a single sound, not a peep. It was as if no one was there. By the end of the day there were a lot of new friendships made. We concluded with some group activities, lunch, and a big soccer match. Our guests from Siddha Bahira beat the Kopila boys team 2-1 in a really good game.
Tope our project's chairman, passed me in the hall as we were each going room to room observing the kids. He was speechless and could only look at me with tears in his eyes. After a long extremely stressful week I finally felt hit with a wave of gratitude because all of this is what it's really about. Mostly, I couldn't get over how quiet it was and how seriously the Kopila kids took the no talking rule and how genuinely happy everyone was today.
"It is really they who came to serve us today, not the other way around," principal Jeff said at the end of the day during our staff meeting. I couldn't agree more. We really hope to meet with our friends again soon. In the meantime, we'll all be brushing up on our sign language over here. Special thanks to the Siddha Bahira school.
