First Day of School: Special Needs Education in Peru

"Colegio para niños con talentos diferentes"

time for school! 

Its my understanding that special needs kids tend to slip through the cracks of the education system, which I think happens everywhere, not just in Peru. There are very few special needs schools in Cusco, in fact, I think there are only 2. Kids come from all over to be able to go to school at San Juan de Dios. I wasn’t able to get a clear answer on whether the school is free or not, but I assume it’s low cost probably on a sliding scale. School goes only from 8:30-11, Monday through Friday. In the US this would be considered a half day but here it is the norm. Kids from all over Cusco and the surrounding areas attend, not just the kids in the clinic. When you enter the school, the sign above the door reads “Colegio para niños con talentos diferentes”, and just past the door is a courtyard with wheelchair ramps at every turn. The school is actually really nice, with about 4 or 5 classrooms separated by age and level in school.

future superstar Brayan 

Diomedes lookin' sharp

Flor and I ready to learn

I’m usually in the classroom with the younger kids and new kids whose level isn’t known yet. We pretty much just play like we do in the clinic, which to me seems a little neglectful. I think there is a “professor” there, but she’s there sporadically and I’m not really sure what she’s teaching them. It feels a little like they just throw all the younger kids in a classroom, give ‘em some glue and paper, and call it school.

learning amarillo 

the finished product

Fruit tasting

 Anyway, they love it. We spent one day learning the color yellow. There was a banana, yellow paper, and yellow balloons. Another day was spent tasting different fruits and deciding if they were sweet

 or tangy. Flor was just coming out of her skin this day, she was so excited to eat. Adalid was excited too, of course, she’s always excited to eat. We tasted a lime, a pear, a banana, and a tangerine. Johan just is not a fruit guy, because he spit everything right out and made the sourest faces I’ve ever seen. We basically do activities like this for a few hours. It’s obviously hard to teach them because it’s hard to tell if they really comprehend since they can’t communicate to you if they get it or if they’re confused (or if they just want to eat fruit). I’m sure the older kids are learning in a more structured way, since they can communicate for the most part. There must be some improvement, or the school wouldn’t still be running.

Adalid excited to eat? It can't be.