Mobile school trails its migrant students - Sisters of Mercy of the Americas set up pilot school that moves with migrant workers

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 14, 1994 by Leslie Wirpsa

The local support and the team's willingness to uproot means a great deal to the 19 youngsters and their families.

"The children will now be treated fairly at school. They won't get mistreated for being migrants, for being Mexican," Arevalo said. "And in Florida, the nuns can start where the children left off. They'll already know where Isabel is having problems. When I was growing up, our teachers never wanted to go back."

The mobile school operates on another interesting premise. The migrant children, referred to as "mobile," are placed in their own classroom, although they share lunch, recess, gym and art with "stationary" students. This makes them the "majority" in the classroom, while in regular public schools, Donovan said, migrant children are "a minority."

"Here, this classroom is all theirs," she added. Donovan says the separation, instead of complicating the children's integration into a regular school system later on, will actually help them adapt.

"This way, they can learn enough self-confidence and skills to build up their self-image, and this will help them integrate into a regular educational process," Donovan said.

The children will study in the Mercy pilot program through the second grade, learning to live bilingual, bicultural lives. For example, Rodolfo, playing on the swing set, will have time to learn that Spanglish terms like pusheame mean nothing, but that empujame and "push me" are one and the same, in Spanish and in English.

"Our greatest hope is early intervention," Lamb said. "The migrant education project will allow these children to experience stability, develop a knowledge of educational fundamentals, learn English and build a belief in themselves."

After just a few weeks of school, confidence has begun to take root: The 19 5- and 6-year-olds are already taking field trips to the local high school to teach ninth- and 10th-graders how to speak Spanish.

And 6-year-old Isabel no longer talks about picking pickles. She has decided she will someday be a teacher.