The Shelter and the Fence by Norman H. Finkelstein

Author:Norman H. Finkelstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

For the youngest children, volunteers organized a nursery school and playgroups to provide fun activities.

Children were kept busy with a variety of activities.

Fourth-grade refugee children at the Campus School of Oswego State Teachers College.

From their first interactions across the shelter fence, the refugee children knew that the boys and girls on the other side were like them. But it would take a little time for the newcomers to be totally accepted as equals. At the teachers college school, puzzled refugee children approached their teacher to ask what language the other children were speaking. With their knowledge of languages, they knew it was not English. It turned out that to show their new classmates they too could speak more than one language, the Oswego children were speaking in Pig Latin.

The new students were a positive influence on their American classmates. After not being in school for years or never, the shelter children took education seriously. When one local student made fun of Ernest Spitzer from Vienna for being so committed to learning, the refugee boy answered, “In prison camp I was too hungry to study, I have forgotten much. Don’t mind me, but I must make it up.” A local high school student said, “At first a lot of kids laughed at them for being grinds, but it certainly made you feel small.” A school administrator said, “They did inspire our own youngsters. They were very careful about citizenship, politeness, and they were very anxious to conform to the rules and regulations…. I think they have greatly stimulated our own boys and girls.” In return, refugee student Edith Bronner said, it was the “first normal teenage life we ever had.” The refugees created increased interest in geography and history—especially American history—in their classrooms. The city librarian was pleased by frequent visits by refugee students and an increased borrowing of foreign dictionaries by local students.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.