Visitor with a mission

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 7

Visitor with a mission

Grog, swotting and nugget are words taken for granted by Kiwis, but for an overseas visitor these words can be a real puzzle, until their meaning becomes clear.

This has been the experience of Rae Whitehall, a Rotary Scholorship exchangee from the United States who is spending a year in New Zealand. She is living in Dunedin at an Otago University hostel, studying for a post-graduate Diploma in Education, and as recently toured the northern half of the South Island. Miss Whitehall teaches handicapped children, and is studying methods of teaching used in New Zealand while on her tour. She visits schools for the handicapped, and compares the various methods o. teaching. This has given her a much broader outlook in her teaching, and has given her many different

ideas to use when she returns to the United States.

“This scheme is so good, because it enables you to share ideas with other teachers,” said Miss Whitehall. “You see different ways of presenting material, and these ideas can be used when I get back to the States. It’s the sharing of ideas with other teachers that is so valuabl . “I have found that the teachers here are so enthusiastic about their work. Handicapped children are now being integrated into normal school classes here, and this interaction is very good. It has a positive effect on normal children; they are learning with the handicapped children, and no longer think of them as being ‘strange’ because of this. It gives them a greater understanding.” Miss Whitehall is working on four papers for

her Diploma of Education. which she says she is determined to pass. “By doing this diploma I am filling in gaps in my education which I could not have normally done." she said. “The education system is different in New Zealand. The work load at the university is the same, but is more concentrated — the terms arc shorter here, with longet vacations, and this means you have to work much harder during the term to get the work done.” She said that it was much cheaper to attend a a New Zealand university, because the fees were lower. In the United States there are no student bursaries, and only a few scholarships, which were very hard to get. Miss Whitehall comes from Entiat, a small town in the state of Washington. She said there are many facets of life in

New Zealand that were completely different from what she had been used to. She had some difficulty adjusting herself to using words such as "fortnight" and "queue,” which she had never heard before, and common words such a s "swotting” and “nugget” were also new to her. Asked what she thought she had gained from her visit, she said: “I think the most important part is the sharing of ideas with people from another country; by doing this you realise that people are the same everywhere. “1 have gained a lot of new ideas for my teaching by visiting schools, and talking with teachers of both ‘normal’ and handicapped children. “I love teaching, and this trip has given me a better insight into different ways of approaching my teaching.”