YES, I CAN -- The Triumph of the UFT's Classroom Paraprofessionals
Jan 12, 2001 2:51 PM
Crucial Members of the Educational Team
Paraprofessionals have come a long way since the late 1960s. In today's classrooms paras work with children of all ages and abilities, although they concentrate on those who are educationally disadvantaged or disabled.
Over the years, people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds have joined the paraprofessional ranks. Many who are bilingual help students who speak foreign languages to bridge the gap into English proficiency. Spanish, Cantonese,Haitian-Creole and Korean are just a few of the languages involved. Some help lagging students to read, write and learn math and science. Other paras provide individualized library and research assistance, act as troubleshooters identifying classroom problems or communicate with parents, whom they often know as neighbors. In short, paras are an essential part of the instructional team.
For example, Joan Mayo said that as a para, she sometimes was in a position to "work with individual students better than the teacher." Mayo, who climbed the UFT career ladder to get a degree and is still a para at New Dorp High School in Staten Island, said she wasn't perceived as a judgmental authority figure, but in many cases was seen as an "open ear" ready to hear students' problems, or even their anger.
Similarly, for the nine years she served as a para in Queens District 24,Arlene Steiner's working motto was: "We're not going to lose that child."While the teachers she worked with had to deal with 30-plus students, she had the flexibility to zero in on individual problems, to lift up the child hood wasn't quite ready for the first grade, to ease the distress of the boy coping with his parents' divorce or even to become the "best friend" of the girl being raised by grandparents. But just as eloquent a testament to para power as any memory are her wistful words, now that, thanks to the UFT career ladder, she herself is a teacher: "I wish I had a para."
One of the first teachers to have a para-professional in her classroom was Ettra Magniccari, who recently retired as an assistant principal from PS172 in Brooklyn. In 1967, she recalled, "Our principal came to me and said,'You're getting a paraprofessional,' and I had never heard of that term before.After a few days, a very lovely lady from the neighborhood came into my class.She arrived around November or December after the fall term had begun.
"It was strange getting used to having another person in the classroom,"Magniccari said. "There was a routine that she had to get adjusted to. But it was wonderful. I worked with her for four years and I love her to this day. Her name is Mercedes Vales and I stay in touch with her."
