PHILIPSBURG:— What better place to celebrate the theme of International Literacy Day (ILD) 2024, “Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace”? And who better in that place for a school to pick for its ILD program?
The place is St. Martin of course, an island with a multilingual culture that existed among its native population long before the 1970s tourism boom attracted various language speakers to its shores from the Caribbean region and around the world.
So, who did the MAC primary school invite to address grade 6 for its ILD observation last Friday? Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, educator, leading linguist, and author, said her publisher HNP.
“It was an interactive reading session. From the book Disaster Matters I read ‘Preparedness’ by Opal Adisa from Jamaica, and from St. Martin ‘20 More Minutes’ and ‘Gone with Irma’ by Fabian Badejo, and ‘After the Storm’ by Tamara Groeneveldt,” said Arrindell.
Arrindell shared with Teacher Johnelle Fitzpatrick’s class the importance of reading books about St. Martin and the Caribbean along with literatures from around the world.
“The idea was also to bring across to our young people a main reason for ILD, that literacy, in the words of UNESCO, ‘opens the door to the enjoyment of other human rights, greater freedoms, and global citizenship,’” said Arrindell.
“I shared with the students how a book like Disaster Matters is put together with editors and writers from the Caribbean and beyond, and published in St. Martin by HNP.
“At the end, I quizzed the students, and they were able to win copies of 6 Poems by Lasana Sekou, the newest book by the St. Martin writer, in English, French, and Spanish, and published on the island by Les Fruits de Mer,” said Arrindell.
“The kids had a ball, especially when they participated by reciting the chorus in Fabian’s ‘Gone with Irma.’ And they were very eager to win the book by Lasana,” said Arrindell.
Arrindell’s book, Language, Culture and Identity in St. Martin (HNP, 2014), remains “a unique groundbreaking work” for its research, according to Dr. Alma Simounet of the University of Puerto Rico. Arrindell also has a UNESCO connection. During her term here as education minister in 2011, she got St. Martin (South) admitted as an associate member of the UN organization, said HNP.
“Since 1967, the annual celebrations of International Literacy Day (ILD) have taken place on 8 September around the world to remind policy-makers, practitioners, and the public of the critical importance of literacy for creating more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society,” said UNESCO on Sunday (unesco.org/en/days/literacy).
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