Capturing the culture 



Photo by Sarah Friday 



The workshop mixed the cultures and curricula of the two countries 



From the minute the plane touched 

 down in San Juan, the North CaroUna 

 teachers felt welcome in Puerto Rico. 

 Just as the wheels brushed the runway, 

 about 300 passengers clapped fervent- 

 ly for the pilot. 



It was a friendly and enthusiastic 

 way to begin a week-long stay on an 

 island posed between the Atlantic 

 Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. 



What was ahead for these teachers 

 was a unique kind of summer school 

 they would share with educators from 

 a different culture. Class started when 

 they landed, and didn't adjorn until 

 they waved goodbye eight days later. 



Immediate friendships were 

 doubtful when the two groups first met 

 on the back veranda of a small motel in 

 Parguera. One group spoke mostly 

 Spanish, and the other, mostly 

 English. A few of the Puerto Ricans 

 had been to America, but none of the 

 North Carolinians had been to the 

 island. It could have been a long week. 



But a simple name game melted the 

 ice. And soon, smiles, laughter, music, 

 hand motions, drawings and a few 

 translators dissolved the language 

 barrier and helped create an at- 

 mosphere of sharing. 



"I can't remember many times in 

 my life when I have been in a place 

 where almost every person near you 

 was willing to give so much," said 

 Maritza Febo. "Everywhere I looked, 

 there was a group of English-speaking 

 and Spanish-speaking persons strug- 

 gling to communicate, to share 

 knowledge, feelings, ideas. Language 

 was no barrier." 



"Living with the people, studying 

 right along with them . . . that's what 

 made this trip special," says Betty 

 Dean. "I feel like I've been a Puerto 

 Rican for a week." 



To exchange ideas in the classroom, 

 Spence, Gonzalez and the other 

 speakers talked slowly and deliberate- 

 ly so everyone could understand. 

 When information needed to be trans- 

 lated, one of four bilingual teachers 

 would step in. However presented, the 

 underlying message came through — 

 that the teachers shared a common 

 love of nature and of children. 



"Their needs are the same. Their 

 desires are the same," says Lucrecia 



Rousseaux. "They want the best for 

 their children." 



The North Carolina teachers found 

 that their Puerto Rican counterparts 

 want good school administrators, 

 enthusiastic lectures, adequate texts 

 and challenging curricula, too. But in 

 Puerto Rico, they aren't always able to 

 give their students what they'd like. 

 Useful textbooks, for example, are 

 rarely available. Latin American 

 materials are not always suitable, they 

 said, and those from the United States 

 often need to be translated. 



The workshop eased some of their 

 frustrations. Spence doled out names 

 and addresses of organizations that 

 could provide assistance to Puerto 

 Rican teachers. And Grace Lieberman, 

 an education specialist with the World 

 Wildlife Fund-U.S. in Washington, 

 D.C., and Dorothy Bjur, a marine 

 education consultant from Los 

 Angeles, brought bilingual texts and 

 activities. 



Outside the classroom, the cultural 

 exchange extended and intensified. 

 "The Puerto Ricans are proud of their 

 heritage and culture," says Mary 

 Kearns, a science consultant from 

 Greensboro. "They wanted us to see 

 their festivals, to taste their foods, go 

 inside their homes, meet their friends, 

 hear their songs." 



Experiences such as these gave the 

 North Carolina teachers a better un- 

 derstanding of a different culture, one 

 they could savor on their own or take 



back to school. 



"Riding back on the boat from the 

 mangroves, I decided I was going to 

 teach my children Spanish this year," 

 says Rousseaux, who teaches the 

 fourth grade. "There's no reason why I 

 can't teach them Spanish, the culture. 

 It helps them understand the world is 

 really a small place." 



The students in Pam Milvaney's 

 biology classes in Raleigh will get a 

 taste of Puerto Rico this year, too. 

 Milvaney brought back slides of the 

 different ecosystems on the island, 

 plant specimens and something else of 

 value — the people. "I think anytime 

 you go any place you bring back the 

 people you met there," she says. "So 

 when I show those slides, I'm sure I 

 will incorporate the lifestyles of the 

 people who live there along with the 

 environments they live in." 



"Being there" gave Mary Sue Lane 

 of Apex new perspective, as well. "I've 

 become much more aware of how 

 others live," she says. "And as a 

 teacher, this is important because I'm 

 much more accepting of other people's 

 opinions." This will make an impact 

 on her teaching, she says, because she 

 works in the only middle school in 

 Wake County that has English as a 

 second language. Before the trip, she 

 always wanted to "Americanize" her 

 foreign students. Now she realizes they 

 have a separate culture that is impor- 

 tant for them to retain. 



— Sarah Friday 



