Your letters/emails
HEE-HEE NET has been set up to establish a joke-sharing network aimed at supporting and promoting therapeutic laughter among marginalized groups in education world-wide.
M. Miles, UK
m99miles@hotmail.com
From Argentina…
I do not know what anarchy looks like – all my life the military came on the scene and “tidied” everything – but this looks very near anarchy. The ‘piqueteros’ have decided to be very radical by blocking the roads and highways. I feel that inclusion has to be considered more than ever in education with such a bad situation because children will be more diverse, and teachers should have to welcome new tools to deal with this.
My work with parents is still positive. I am working hard on my son, Juan’s, access to the curriculum. Last year I shared my expertise about this with many teachers. They invited me to share this knowledge with trainee teachers.
I wish to ask you a favour – to keep me and the people I meet informed. You can’t imagine how isolation feels. If you can keep sending us information about events, projects and the newsletter, it will be a great, great support.
Elena dal Bo
Argentina
ecobenia@netverk.com.ar
Greetings from HakiElimu, Tanzania!
HakiElimu is a Tanzanian non-government organisation (NGO). Our vision is of a Tanzania where all children enjoy their right to quality basic education, in schools that respect the dignity and human rights of all people. Our mission is to facilitate communities to transform schools and influence policy making, stimulate imaginative public dialogue and organising for change, conduct critical research, inquiry, analysis and advocacy and collaborate with partners to advance common interests and social justice. We are establishing a small library/resource centre to support these programmes. We are interested in collecting materials on education and related areas. Our library will be open to the public and used by scholars, researchers, policy makers and activists.
Agnes Mangweha
Librarian
info@hakielimu.com
And a cutting from a Kenyan newspaper…
Students may not be stupid
Whenever education experts discuss the causes of the rising school drop-out rate, they often cite poverty, forgetting other causes which may not be as pronounced… Yet…poverty can only partly explain the phenomenon.
The main problem could lie with school curricula and teaching methods. Our learning system…has no patience with children with learning disabilities….They are branded slow-learners, lazy and stupid. They are made to repeat classes several times, are punished heavily for not catching up with the rest…It is the feeling of rejection that compels them to drop out, if they do not persevere long enough to be weeded out by national examinations…. Children are dropping out of school for reasons that are not difficult to correct.
The teacher training process should stress how to accommodate and develop such children.
Editorial in Daily Nation, Kenya, July 23 2001
EENET now has many contacts with small resource centres and information networks throughout the world. Please let us know if you are thinking of setting up a network or resource centre.