15953: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald- School gives parents the power of literacy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2003

School gives parents the power of literacy
Reading, writing classes offer immigrants a new chance at life
BY DAPHNE DURET
dduret@herald.com




When 10-year-old Rose DeMerzier lays her head down to sleep at night, she
dreams of the day her mother will read her a bedtime story.

It's not that her mother doesn't want to. It's that she can't.

Like many natives of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, Maryse
DeMerzier never got an education.

But today, 11 years after DeMerzier came to Miami from Haiti in a boat, she
is learning how to read and write.

And she's doing it in the same school, the Toussaint L'Ouverture Elementary
School in Little Haiti, where her daughter is a fourth-grader.

DeMerzier is one of about 20 parents at Toussaint experiencing the power of
literacy for the first time.

''I used to feel humiliated when I was around other people,'' DeMerzier said
about her time in America before she started learning how to read. ``Now
when I am in public, I feel confident.''

The class's teacher, Community Involvement Specialist Ghislaine Verdier,
said her inspiration came from a trip to buy school uniforms with parents
like DeMerzier.

'The parents had to sign their names at the end of an invoice to get the
uniforms, and one of the store attendants began to argue with a mother when
she would only sign with an `X,' '' Verdier said.

``The clerk didn't understand how someone could not know how to write their
own name, and the mother was so embarrassed she began to cry.''

>From Monday through Thursday every school week, the parents spend their
mornings at the Parent Resource Center, a trailer behind the school, where
they learn spelling, handwriting and reading just feet away from their
children.

Verdier said she also teaches the parents life skills that help them live
and work in the United States.

Many schools in the community -- including Toussaint -- have adult education
programs in the evening where Creole speakers can learn how to read, write
and speak English.

GOOD TIMING

But Toussaint's program allows parents to come in during the daytime and
learn while their sons and daughters are in school.

The timing is perfect for DeMerzier, who came to Miami with three of her
eight children.

DeMerzier has been coming to the classes off and on since they began at the
school in 1996.

Now, she reads and writes at almost the same level as her youngest son Roi,
who at 8 years old is in second grade.

She lived in Port-au-Prince when she was in Haiti but never went to school,
challenging the notion that limited access to education is only a problem in
the nation's rural provinces.

Less than half of Haiti's population is literate.

And because few parents in Haiti outside the middle and upper classes can
afford to enroll their kids in an education system made up almost entirely
of private schools, DeMerzier lived within walking distance of a school but
never went.

''I don't blame my parents for not being able to send me to school, but I
knew I wanted to do better for my children,'' she said.

Parents in the class -- whose last session before summer break was June 12
-- say they no longer have to hang their heads because they know how to
read.

''Now when I go places it's a little easier for me to communicate with
people and do what I need to do,'' said parent Anise Mederick, who came to
Miami in December 2001.

In recent years, Verdier and her students have taken their strive for
literacy high-tech, with computer classes on the school's second floor.

In addition to knowing how to write their names, all the regular students
can type their names on the computer and access the dadeschools.net website
to check notices concerning their children.

The program does as much for the children as it does for the parents, said
school principal Ruthie Williams, who is retiring next month after eight
years at Toussaint.

''When the parents learn how to do those basic skills, they become more
confident about themselves, and their children see that,'' Williams said.

Carline Faustin, Haitian affairs liaison for Miami-Dade County Public
Schools, said the key to making that happen is diligence.

''A lot of times when it's time for budget cuts, programs like these are the
first to get hit. But if more people know about them and put pressure on
supervisors and higher-ups to keep them around, then they will be harder to
get rid of,'' said Faustin.

ENCOURAGEMENT

The literacy program's cost is factored into the Toussaint's budget, but
Verdier pays for extras out of her own pocket.

For Rose and her brother Roi, their mom's education gives them another way
to help out around the house.

''When she has homework or brings a book home to read, I help her with her
lessons,'' Rose said last week before her little brother interrupted her.

''Hey, I give her lessons, too,'' Roi chimed in.

DeMerzier, like the other parents in the group, said it was her children who
encouraged her to begin coming to school.

''Everything I'm doing here, I'm doing for them,'' said Luz Quirindongo, a
Puerto Rican native and the only non-Haitian regular student in the group.

She has four children enrolled at Toussaint.

And though DeMerzier has not read her daughter any bedtime stories yet, Rose
said her mother tucks her in at night with a pearl of wisdom she is not
likely to forget.

``She tells me to stay in school, because you have to go to school if you
want to be somebody.''

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