Manifesto

As educators at Las Terrenas International School it is our job to create the reality inside of our classrooms and to determine the community of students we will educate, ensuring that it is a true representation of the Las Terrenas Community as a whole. Students learn from each other just as much as they learn from teachers and studies show that children from different cultural and economic backgrounds bring different skill sets to the classroom. The responsibility to expose our students to this reality, especially in a community as diverse as Las Terrenas, is not one we take lightly, and it is for this reason that scholarships and the money to fund scholarships for potential students are a necessity.

Aside from benefiting the school and community as a whole and education at our school would benefit each child and their family, providing them with tools and language experience to succeed in all areas and in the future. This gift is life changing, not just for each child, but for their family and future generations. 

Our close proximity to the library projects has further reaffirmed our mission to be an economically and culturally diverse school. The disparity between many of our students and students who attend free library programs is a driving force for us in wishing to collect enough money to provide scholarships for students. We have witnessed the collaboration and mutual learning that takes place when all of the children work together and we are blessed to be a part of our community and be able to work together to identify and select students who would most benefit from the scholarships. We have an in depth democratic selection process involving all staff where we consider a child’s potential, family involvement and how the child would fit into each class community as we want to ensure that scholarship donations are investments that benefit first the child, and then the school, community, country and world. 

This question has been put to us as educators and humans involved in creating a school and educating future generations. What do we want our school to be? What do we want reality to be for our students? Do we wish to create an institution that reinforces the oppressive and divisive systems and institutions of class and race in our community or do we wish to create a culture that deconstructs race and class, attempting to place all people on equal footing? We wish to educate all children, to teach our students to learn from and collaborate with people from all backgrounds, laying the foundation for a future where the whole community can work together across lines of race and class to determine from the inside what is best for the community.

Our goal is to provide high quality education and English language instruction to children from all backgrounds and financial situation and therefore to holistically make an impact on the community from the inside by inspiring students to critically think, learn, collaborate and problem solve for themselves as well as be economically self reliant. 

What are we?

Las Terrenas International School is a bilingual and English language immersion school that offers preschool, kindergarten, first and second grade education taught by skilled professional teachers whose native language is English.  The school’s philosophy is to provide an education that values creativity and problem solving while building skills in all areas, including math, literacy, science, social, art, music and creative processes. It is a goal of the school to provide the children with educational and open ended materials in an environment where students are empowered to learn, explore, problem solve and create.

We are located in Biblioteca Anacaona in Las Terrenas, Samana in the Dominican Republic. The school and library projects coexist in the library, professionals from both collaborating and working together towards a common goal of educating the community and providing a safe space where education, tolerance and respect are valued. I am planning on a future post with more information about the foundation, but for now if you would like to know more please visit http://fundacionmahatmagandhi.com/about.html . 

The years represented in Las Terrenas International School are at a critical stage in development. Studies show that children in high quality and creative early childhood education programs flourish later in life and are more likely to be successful, employed and out of prison, regardless of later education deficits. This is because of the social skills, critical thinking and foundation for learning that is laid in a program that respects children, their interests and what is developmentally appropriate. If children can learn to love learning and exploring to answer questions on their own, they will surely be successful at whatever they choose to do in the future.

Our goal for the school is twofold, one part being to provide this quality education and enrich the lives of our students and their families and the second part being to improve the community from the inside. We wish to create a critical mass in the community, a large group of people who are part of the community with skill sets and ethics to think for themselves with a wish to help others. Our graduates will have the skills to be economically self reliant and to help to make change in the community based on what the community wants and needs, not what outsiders deem to be necessary.

This is the second Year that Las Terrenas International School has been in existence, and the first year for kindergarten, first and second grade. We are all working tirelessly to lay the foundation for future years. It is a work in progress and we are so proud of all that we have done. From the beginning we have figuratively and literally built the school, from the furniture for our classrooms, to creating curriculum and assessment systems that are beneficial, organic and developmentally appropriate as well as defining parameters of bilingual (in preschool) and English immersion (in the older grades) all while creating strong, respectful and lasting relationships with students parents and our community.