From the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School off Briarcliff Road, it’s a 15-minute walk to the Margaret Harris Comprehensive School. But despite their proximity, the two DeKalb County institutions are significantly different.
The private IHM is more than 60 years old and has about 500 students in pre-K through eighth grades. The public Harris opened 22 years ago to serve the special needs of students in pre-K until they age out of the system at 22. Today, Harris has 79 students and about a dozen who take classes with online or home-based instruction.
But since 2000, the two have formed a bond that’s created friendships and offered sustained support. That was the year IHM students started heading over to Harris to help out.
Today, the program is a year-long project for IHM seventh graders who spend an hour each week helping teachers, assisting students with activities and reading stories.
“Our students do anything that benefits the teachers by having extra hands,” said Bob Baldonado, IHM’s assistant principal. “Their kids benefit from interacting with our kids, but we’re the ones who really benefit . We’re learning empathy, compassion, service to others – things that make us better human beings, a better school and an even better world.”
Harris Principal Keisha Sims said the benefits aren’t just one-sided.
“Because we are 100% a special education school, our students really benefit by having access to their gen-ed peers,” she said. “And the IHM students help the Harris students participate in activities to the point where they are sometimes the legs and voices of our students.”
While the weekly classroom support has been consistent since the beginning, Sims said the relationship has expanded in the eight years she’s been at Harris.
“What’s changed is the number of activities that go beyond that Wednesday visit,” she said. “We have a Special Olympics field day that IHM helps with. They help with activities like our fall parade around reading or Hispanic heritage month. They also get involved in service projects like maintaining the lawn that help us, too.”
Sims said Harris students cherish the interactions with their IHM peers. “Those extra smiles from an involved person change our students’ energy. They’re engaged more; they’re growing more. It means so much to me to see that interaction. It’s remarkable.”
The Harris partnership is one way IHM students put their faith into action, said Baldonado. And it’s not always easy.
“We always have an orientation at the beginning of the year, and Ms. Sims tells them about the types of students she has and the occupational therapists and nurses who are there,” he said. “Often our students’ experience is limited to seeing someone in the store in a wheelchair or on crutches, but they’re not personally connected. After we take a tour, I ask who’s scared, and they all raise their hands. They’re outside their comfort zones, but I tell them the more they put in, the more they’ll get out of it.”
The positive results are often the main topic at IHM’s year-end assembly when grads return and share their remembrances.
“They often tell us a favorite memory of IHM is working with Margaret Harris,” Baldonado said.
Information about IHM is online at ihmschool.org. Details about Margaret Harris are online at margaretharristct.dekalb.k12.ga.us.
SEND US YOUR STORIES. Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
About the Author
