Director of Mico Care Centre Calls for Greater Tolerance

Director of the Mico University College Child Assessment and Research in Education (CARE) Centre, Angelita Arnold has called for greater tolerance and commitment in the society towards children with learning disabilities, and a re-socialisation of attitudes towards learning.
In an interview with JIS News, Mrs. Arnold said that all children might not have the intellectual capacity to learn academic skills, but the nation’s children could all learn social lessons.
“I strongly believe that every child can learn. Learning doesn’t mean that you can read at your age equivalent level, but every child can definitely learn positive things. A child can learn to love and respect self, put value on things and people, and just learn how to exist in this world,” the Director said.
She stressed that “if every child is to learn,” the country has to be committed to the principle widely promulgated by Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry Wilson that, “every child can learn; every child must.”
“When it comes to ‘every child must learn’, I would say that every child should get the opportunity to learn.If every child is to learn, then all of us in the country must be committed to ensuring that every child learns. It is not something for the Ministry, it is not something just for a school or teachers only; it is the home, it is the community. We are all going to do everything we can to ensure that every child who passes our way learns something positive from us, and it really doesn’t always have to be learning how to read or write,” Mrs. Arnold said.
She pointed out that every child could learn “how to live in this world and how to treat others,” adding that “the earlier we give them that opportunity and the earlier we make them know that they can learn, that will be better for them.” The Director also called on parents, teachers and the community to believe in the children, and “set the right examples for them, so that they can learn.”
Stressing tolerance for people who learn at different paces and are at different intellectual and social levels, Mrs. Arnold noted that, “there is no world where we can live, in which people are not going to be different, and people are going to be at different levels academically and socially, but at the same time, we all are necessary – we all need each other.
And therefore, we need to understand and appreciate the fact that because of these differences, we need to meet each other where we are, because somebody had to meet us where we are.”