Speech #890087543

Mr. Speaker. it is my personal privilege to commend the Dade County Public School system for its extraordinary job in educating and integrating large numbers of Cuban refugees. some 16.000 this year. into American life. Each refugee has endured pains caused by the language barrier and loss of their previous status. As all my colleagues well know. the event of communism in Cuba has caused freedomloving individuals to flee from their homeland to American shores in the hope of making a new life for themselves. The numerous professional people have had to begin at the lowest level of their calling. Doctors are working as interns. lawyers as clerks. We all realize the psychological pains this must cause. The most remarkable fact about the Cuban refugee problem is the accommodation they have received in the Dade County Public School system. The wonderful new schools in Dade are featured in the magazine Education Age. in an article appropriately entitled "Miami SchoolsA New Life To Cubans." from which I quote: This unexpected onslaught of Cuban refugee has not only been absorbed by Dade County in a remarkable and unprecedented education effort. but has in the past 5 years brought about several new teaching methods. Indeed the problems of largescale immigration are today unique to Dade and methods of educating the refugees are also unique. The need to educate students from preschool age to 90 has been handled by a devoted staff of specialists who have coped well with emotional problems not ordinarily faced by teachers. The Cuban refugee needs a great deal of English training. and of necessity had to adapt himself to an entirely different educational concept in other areas. The educational differences were further augumented by the change of residence of large numbers of Cubans within Dade County itself. and the movements of refugees between Dade and other areas within the United States. The most modern techniques are being used. Educational television. for instance. is used with teacher participation.