Clarín, August 5 2007, Education Supplement
The Clarín.com note: here.
paper version: lid here, here first page and second page yonder.
PROGRAM OF THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES
Schools that do not close their doors
There are six children's centers in Buenos Aires areas of greater social risk. There, every Saturday between 10 and 14, children three to six years enjoy educational and recreational activities. Ruben A.
Arribas
When Pierro Mariana arrives at his side, Rosario rises from his chair and said something to him. The teacher moved hugs, kisses him and asks for silence: Rosario wants to talk. All large and small, are looking at where the two. Spend a few seconds, it seems that the very young she has suffered a fit of shyness. Finally says
-A round of applause for Simon and Olga.
Rosario is 5 years old and sitting next to her brother Dylan, 3. Pierro Mariana coordinates the Children's Centers Piedra Buena school in the village Hidden City, and today I was upset since early because the menu was too close to what kids eat at home: "We never sent Milanese", had protested . Silvia and Olga are the cooks, and now to his ears redden with trays of food on hand is Saturday at noon and about 30 little people plump for 3 to 6 years, applauded for its rich polenta with meat and tomato. Although today will not only apple flan for dessert, the kids are happy.
Most of them come at a good pace, you notice that enjoyed a morning full of activities. Ten minutes before the school opened, almost all were pure and ran forward and Piedra Buena Avenue, at the height of Eva Peron. As they entered, gave him a kiss and a hug to the teachers, had breakfast with vanilla and chocolate milk out into the yard, were waiting for a ball, a sandbox, several slides and a swing. About eleven entered the covered portion of the school and teachers were given sheets to disguise themselves. Jean Franco (6) asked to help him become a king who wore robes, Ana Paula (5) chose to be an Indian princess with sari and Gabriel (5) preferred to use the sheet as the layer of Batman. Setpoint change was clear: Discharged tensions in the courtyard, the 30 boys and 5 teachers beginning with the more creative.
Before ensabanados supermen, princesses and Batmans they had tired of his disguise, Professor Gerald Cid had already prepared the following game. It was a row of tables where the kids walked and then jumped to a mattress, yes, before flying each chose whether it was a bird, a plane flying or what. Almost simultaneously another teacher, Leandro Villa, two tables covered with a sheet, explained that it was a house and invited those who wished to inhabit. And when the boys began to want to change the game, Geraldine was already seated in a corner and sang "If I say skinny, skinny, fat, you say ...", what a chorus of children led by Martin Kogan other teachers, he replied: "Fat, fat, skinny." Meanwhile, chorus and chorus will come, the other three teachers acondicionaban two rooms, one beside the other, for two workshops before eating.
In the classroom on the left, Leandro told a story Feroz Mouse in a scene where this was made up to give more fear. At that point in the narrative, Geraldine and distributed paintings and encouraged him to imitate each protagonist and paint their faces in the mirror. If anyone needed help, gave them a hand.
In the right classroom, the teacher could not cope Eliana Euclid who preferred serving tempera paint on a sheet rather than on his face. Although the proposal was gently slide the brush and not mix colors, some found it more fun together and even paint with their hands ... And nobody challenged the contrary, teachers gave them more paint, taking note of what drew or helped to wash. Meanwhile, in a lateral, Mariana mentally evaluated the workshop, mending the broken crotch trousers Martin (5) and answered the hungry that she was about to eat. And is that after twelve, a rich tomato meat smell invaded and two classrooms. So when Simon and Olga finally opened the doors of the room, it fills up quickly. Almost at the same speed that children occupy the outcrop some tables and chairs personal stories. For example, a boy who had been very restless all morning is pulled under a table, kick and do not want to eat. Another, aged 10 but weighs as one of 4, says he feels the stomach closed and not hungry. Malnourished, so the adults around him persuade him to accept another spoonful of polenta, "just one more, we champion, and I promise that after swallowing her tiny arm filled skeletal muscles. And next to the kitchen, at the end of a table, a princess of 5 years is hidden under a cap and thin pink corduroy food with the spoon, without looking up the dish. Does not talk, yell, or even request toileting. Answer the questions with audible monosyllables and a look of melancholy adult, it seems that only expected to finish the lunch, morning, day.
however, is suddenly open seat next to Martin, his favorite teacher, and she runs up there. "What do you do, Araceli?" He says as he lovingly touched the brim of his cap. Then she smiles. Smile, and her big eyes once again be filled with children. Smile, but the dish of polenta will be on the table, barely untouched, even though she was hailed as everyone when Rosario took the floor.
And then? Do they act that if these guys? Who knows, maybe some, but for most other hypotheses fit. The most comprehensive is that this band of little people that barely have their feet high in a particular way of thanking parents and teachers this programón Saturday. Let's see: this is a school wide, bright, warm and clean, where the only screaming is they, not adults. Also, and contrary to daily living in a village devastated in 2001 by the paco and drug trafficking, fights are resolved here speaking, knife in hand or throws. And finally, children and Julio Denis (3) live in this space as a paradise to be safe from beatings by his father.
But there is something as fundamental as this. In this school, one of 6 attached to the Children's Centers program of the Government of the City, "you can have a bad day and Mariana get through, notice how you can not draw that anguish that you have in your head, as happened to Jean Franco, and then she promises you that Eliana, who is professor of plastic, after eating will help you decipher what it is that (an ocean wave, something far more difficult than all those houses, soles and people who had painted so far). Ie: at the gates of Hidden City, surrounded by so much violence that some residents say this is liberated zone, a group of 30 children are 5 teachers themselves. Polenta is just a detail, important, but a detail. It is inevitable that the combo includes a lot of love for cooking and quality education. For short and chubby one is, so honestly deserves at least a round of applause when meal.
**
Seeking a better life
Fatima Andrea Barri want a better life than hers to Rosario (5) and Dylan (3), their children, hence leads to school on Saturdays. "A teacher would like to be Rosario planter "he explains. He added: "I also wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, the children loved me, then I fond of them." Bittersweet smiles as he refers to a dream that will not be possible. "Dylan says it will cartonero Like his father, he loves jumping on the bandwagon ... But he also says he will study in the garden. " Fatima explains the latter as the above: with both hands on the belly, where Jesus Bautista, his third son to be born. He yawns and says he returns home to prepare food to her husband, who this morning was up at 6 to go to the factory and the afternoon is on the cards. She speaks with the same smiling face that he gave his daughter, with eyes as lively as those inherited by his son, so yes, it speaks only a year older than both of them together: 19.
"is more relaxed, having fun"
"Gabriel takes a lot of affection. With love and patience, all you'll do: talking well, giving him a kiss, caressing ... Because he had a very hard when I was a baby. " Cristina Fretes speaks with a sweet little song and makes it clear that Formosa should leave immediately because he went to work at the Fair of Lugano. 57 years old and, although the grandmother of Gabriel Octavio (5), it really is his mother, the other, biological, abandoned him when he was 6 months and the father his son formed another family. Gabriel attends the Children's Centers program for three years and the balance, according to his mother-grandmother worked, is this: "I notice it much quieter, having fun ... After home tells me what he did: songs, games for teachers, everything. It makes you much good. "
Every Saturday, a new beginning
"It starts every Saturday," responds Raquel Giménez (66), psychologist, muralist and Children's Centers program coordinator. Answers referring to when to enroll in the 6 centers open, however, stretch the wire and carries the meaning of the phrase beyond. And he does it consolidate the project as a viable public policy in areas overwhelmed by social problems is testing his blood pressure, hence the end of that sentence summarizing his philosophy of life, and adds: "As Serrat sang, I always think today can be a great day. "
Today is May 19 and the big day happens in Retirement, where his team opened a center in the town 31. According to the coordinator has told, only 15 boys attended, but it gets Giménez positive: it is the sixth open and fight to set. The next step, he says, is more than clear: "You have to walk the town."
That means that teachers will go door to door to tell parents that this program offers an artistic and expressive space and the neighborhood. For some this means that their children access for the first time to school. For others, a place to leave and go quiet on Saturday to earn a few bucks. For all will be the opportunity to enjoy a personalized education. "We work with no more than 60 children per center, we focus on quality in teaching, not the massive thing," Giménez closed.
6 sites in 6 risk areas
These are the 6 centers opened by the program of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires for children between 3 and 6 years. Operate on Saturdays from 10 am to 14 pm:
• Kindergarten No. 10, Iriarte 3880 (Barracks), 4912 2862.
• Infant School No. 5, U.S. Tour and Antarctica Argentina (Withdrawal) 4313 0103.
• No Nursery School 5, Founrouge and Unanue (Villa Soldati), 4602 6075.
• Kindergarten No. 4, Chilavert 2680 (Villa Soldati) 4919 9986.
• Kindergarten No. 4, Varela 1425 (Bajo Flores), 4633 2011.
• Kindergarten No. 3, Piedra Buena and Eva Peron (Hidden City), 4687 0574.
Education Program
"Development of Boys Clubs and Children's Centres marks our goal of providing a school is always open. Although it shares the space of formal education, teachers and professionals responsible for the program offered every Saturday educational, recreational and artistic. The six child care centers are located in disadvantaged areas of the city, with a proposal and child care not necessarily in school, "said Minister of Education of the City
Ana Maria Clement.
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