As many of you know, we have a Montessori school near our main Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico, with 100 kids enrolled from pre-K through elementary school. Some of our students have special needs and perhaps were rejected by other schools, or they did not get the support they needed in the school where they were.
One of our bright and beautiful students is deaf and cannot speak. Her mother says that her daughter was bullied in her previous school, so she moved her to ours. Our teachers explained to the other children about this girl’s challenges, that she cannot hear or speak, and the other students were quick to accept her and treat her with great respect. They are also creative in finding ways to include her. For example, when there’s an occasion for the kids to clap for something they’re excited or happy about, they switch to using the sign language symbol for applause by holding their two hands up and shaking them, so she can look around and see, “Oh, everybody’s clapping,” and she joins in.
An important aspect of our school is teaching virtues, so when situations arise in the students’ day-to-day lives, we often ask them which virtue would be helpful or which might be lacking. They often surprise us with their insights and keen understanding of how they can live more virtuously. As a result, the students and teachers have created a school environment where compassion, patience and respect for one another are practiced. The children are happy to be there and excited about learning, and when it comes time for their lessons, they get down to business.
A retired schoolteacher from the U.S. recently visited the school and toured all the classrooms. As he saw the students applying themselves to their assigned work, he told us, “I taught school for decades in the U.S., and I’m amazed at the silence and concentration of these kids. You just don’t see that in the States anymore.”