Irish Teacher: Ukrainian people will bring more than they will take — if they are shown love, kindness and care

Jennifer Horgan: "What has gone on in East Wall in Dublin this week reveals what happens when we forget to see people."

Picture a girl. She’s ten years old, with mousey brown hair and big, watchful eyes. She plays the violin, loves to draw, misses her dad. She is from Ukraine, and she’s been in my best friend’s class for just over six weeks. 

On her second day in her new Irish school a fire drill went off. She reacted immediately, unlike any other child in the room. My friend held her trembling hand, led her from their classroom with only a handful of words to console her.

As of this month, 12,544 Ukrainian pupils are enrolled in schools across Ireland — 7,948 in primary and 4,596 in post-primary. This girl is one of many. And beyond Ukrainians, there are thousands of children from other parts of the world too.

These people can so easily become statistics when we fail to picture them as individuals, forget to see.

We must never forget to see.

I’m very proud of my teacher friend for all they are doing for this Ukrainian girl, and I am learning from it too. I’ve always feared having children with little English in my class. I have felt untrained and ill-equipped, but my friend reminds me that the important things in teaching are simple. We must only connect. We must listen and see.

My friend is doing a wonderful job. The class plays word games every day, which improve everybody’s communication skills. They use Ukrainian for keywords and daily phrases and encourage their new student to use a translator app.

Inspired by my friend’s teaching experience, I spoke with Language expert Francesca La Morgia this week, founding director of Mother Tongues,where she is responsible for Learning, Research and Policy Development.

She reminded me that children with different languages offer a wonderful learning opportunity for everyone. Too often we see these children in terms of deficit. We forget what they have to offer. These students are a source of richness.

Inevitably, our society will be enriched by people coming in, just as the emigrating Irish enriched America and elsewhere for generations.

“Mother Tongues is about the maintenance and celebration of language for a child. There is no simple solution, and a teacher must always start with the child.”

La Morgia stresses the importance of using English in play, beyond the classroom, playing sport maybe, playing with friends. She also reminds me that their learning must always start in their own language and develop from there. So next week I will suggest that my Brazilian students read Frankenstein in Portuguese over Christmas. 

I must, as La Morgia put it, “nurture their love of learning first because the research is clear that those who succeed in these circumstances are those who get an opportunity to use their own language.”

I’d like anyone reading my column this week to picture the small girl in my friend’s class when they hear people complaining about immigrants taking homes and resources. A girl who before war broke out in her country, knew nothing beyond it.

A girl who has taught her whole class how to speak Ukrainian. Who has started playing in the yard, playing Capture the Flag and Splat. Who is starting to laugh with her new Irish friends. Who will bring more to this country than she will take, if she is shown love, kindness, care.

What has gone on in East Wall and Fermoy this week reveals what happens when we forget to see people. I’m ashamed to hear the language of fear and hate festering and taking root in Irish voices in response to the arrival of asylum seekers to that community.

I’m sickened to hear people like Philip Dywer describe men desperately seeking asylum as “unvetted foreigners, strangers, military-aged males”. Because all of it, every word, every single hateful utterance, diminishes our ability to see.

Irish people have every right to be angry at our lack of housing. We have a right to be furious at every cent misspent by politicians and people with power and privilege.

Nobody in Ireland should be homeless or left on a trolley in a hospital corridor overnight.

We deserve better. But the culprits are not our fellow humans in such dire need.

I’m very proud of my friend. I am in awe of all teachers in Ireland helping students from so many different places in the world in underfunded, over-populated classrooms.

I also hope we don’t lose more people to hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric. Our suffering is not lessened when we add to the suffering of others by turning them away.

Because we are the best we can be, the moment we close our eyes, picture a girl, remind ourselves to see.