Sanja Kalajdziska
Fredericton High School

Good morning to everyone. First I want to thank you and Canada and all good people that helped me to stand this morning here in front of all of you to talk about one of the most important issues today, education. I agree to come and talk about this because I think my experience and some of my ideas can help somebody else later on.

I am a student of grade 10 in Fredericton High School and have lived in Canada since March of this year. The worst things in this world are war and racism. Most of the people can not do much about that, but the teachers have the chance through their work and the way they act in the classroom to teach the younger generations how to stop racism. The most important teacher's role comes in the multicultural classroom. Besides teaching science, math, language arts, ect. one of the most important things is teaching younger people how to love and respect each other no matter what country they come from or the colour of their skin.

Today after all that happened to me I can only say that the things that I went through I wouldn't wish on anybody else. I come from a country where it was wrong being a member of any religion, where people learn how to hate each other over night, where people did not respect other religious beliefs, where people believe that they can live on their own, where the children couldn't be friends with members of other religions. That led us to 500, 000 dead people and children. That is one of the reasons why I know that the teachers role is one of the most important things in today's education system.

A lot of students today get more help and advice from their teachers then from their working parents, maybe that is the reason why most people remember their teachers and the things they learn from them all their life. I don't think any child will ever forget a teacher that took the time to explain to him/her some of the values of life. Being a teacher, and especially being a teacher in a multicultural classroom is a very hard and responsible job. Seeing children from different nationalities feeling not less valued or not less important than their Canadian friends should not be less important to any teacher than in teaching the school material. Teaching a child from a different country what to expect in a new school and their new home and to succeed is one of the teacher's greater successes in their teaching career. When a child feels a part of the new school and the new class, it is a lot easier for him/her to develop academic skills. When a child or a young person comes to a new country, usually their trust and faith is ruined. They do not feel welcome, and they do not have a sense of belonging but with some patience and understanding the teacher can make that same person feel like a part of the new class and open new horizons to them. The child usually develops love and trust to the people who help him or her, and that is the teachers role. It is important to a child to have family support at that time, but the teacher plays the main role. The teacher should be very careful in the first couple of meetings with the child, because the first impression is usually the most important. If the teacher is friendly and looks interested, it is more likely that the child will believe that people do care. But if the teacher is busy and he or she is not interested, the child will think that he/she doesn't belong there that the teacher shares the same opinion.

The teacher should present the child to the class and encourage the students to help the newcomer in the new setting. The teacher should carefully say to the class some of the background of the new student, that way it shows that the student has nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe he or she could encourage the child to say something about their country or culture and in that way the rest of the class could learn something new.

The students need to learn how to respect one another and respect other opinions. If the class asks questions, the new student can feel more proud and self confident to answer and to feel more like a part of them. The teacher should try to find more time for discussion, and maybe to show films or pictures or articles about other cultures. When the class is able to learn about other cultures their horizons also open, they are ready to help if that is necessary. Special classes should be organized in which students from other countries can share memories from home, brings symbols like flags, samples of money or food from their own country. The class could be divided into smaller groups and given an assignment to research and collect different information about another country, or even given an assignment to interview a person from another country. The teacher could start a project where students could write letters to students of the same age from another country. He or she could encourage the students to collect notebooks, books pencils and send them to a school in need. There are lots of different things a teacher can do to help a new student, and at the same way teach other students lots of new things.

If the teacher shows a great interest, and willing to fight racism, the class will look up to that teacher. The teacher can show the students that racism is not stronger than people. I know what racism is and how much it hurts. But my teachers reassured me that we can fight it and that we are stronger together.

Racism is an evil that we should fight all the time. The best way of fighting it is by loving and understanding each other. Besides the parents, teachers are the ones that help children understand that we are all the same, and that our skin colour does not matter. What matters is what is inside us, in our souls. The teaching profession is one of the most important and most responsible professions in the modern world. Our teachers today do not only teach us how to write a good essay or how to write a good test, we don't only learn about photosynthesis or Shakespeare, today in school we learn about life, we learn about us. The teacher teaches us the values of life, teaches us how to love and help one another, how to be a good friend, how to help a lending hand. There is no subject that teaches all this, this comes from the teachers heart. We learn how to respect each other and that is the most important thing. Thank you.

Carol Loughrey: You have seen the multicultural classroom and the responsibility of the teacher in a multicultural classroom outlined by our panel today. I am kind of addicted to these things called accessories, and there is one that I got the other day that says: "one hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child". To a teacher I think I would change that quote - but the world may be better because I was important in the life of a child. I think that is what we are talking about today, making the world better. Thank you.

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© 2007 Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University