PRESIDENT John Kennedy, in outlining his vision of progressive education, once said allowing individual's to realise their full potential helped America to realise its full potential.

"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities," said the 35th US President, "because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strengthen our nation."

And helping our young people realise their full potential was at the top of the agenda for a team of Bermudian educators when they went to Pennsylvania recently to study alternative learning methods.

The team comprised of Education Officer Dr. Judith Bartley, education therapists O'Brien Osborne and Donna Woolridge, Head of Student Services at Berkeley Institute Brentron Burgess and Cindy Smith, a counsellor at Whitney Institute.

Dr. Bartley and Mr. Osborne spoke with Mid-Ocean News about their recent trip, some of the new methods they were introduced to and how these will impact on ongoing projects. They also addressed the vital role parents play in ensuring their children receive not only solid academic educations but also learn the life lessons that will keep them out of trouble as they grow up.

The team was invited to Pennsylvania by the US Consulate in Bermuda to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Programme.

The programme was inaugurated more than 70 years ago and Bermuda has been taking part since 2005.

"The Volunteer Visitor Programme was developed in the 1940s by the United States Department of State," said Dr. Bartley. "It's a way of bringing people from all over the world together to learn about the history, culture and various types of programmes in the United States.

Speaking about the focus of this year's programme and how it ties in to projects already in place here in Bermuda, Dr. Bartley said: "The topic we focused on was model alternative programme. This dovetailed completely with our direction which right now is the alternative to the out-of-school suspension project. Going up to the United States enabled us to gain more information. We looked at what we could learn from the exchange and what we could bring back to Bermuda based on that exchange.

"There was an emphasis on the alternative to the out- of-school suspension project here in Bermuda. We are very concerned that when children are out of school they are not getting what they need academically and they have too much free time. Their time is not being well spent in terms of having constructive, productive days."

Dr. Bartley explained details of the proposed alternative to out-of-school suspensions.

"This programme will enable the students in question to continue to receive their academic studies," she said. "It also enables any other support they might need in terms of processing why they are out on suspension and ways in which we can prevent this from happening in the future. We also try to help them look at their behaviours more seriously."

Dr. Bartley said she and the team learned several things from the trip, in particular the need to address behavioural problems among students at the earliest possible opportunity.

"One of the things we learned at the visitor exchange programme that was really interesting was that across the board people were saying things like, 'When we intervene and the child is age 16 and 17 it is so much harder and we need to start doing this so much earlier'."

Mr. Osborne agreed, adding: "It is very clear that Primary 1 (P1) is the place to start. Chief among the reasons is that parents are so agreeable at that age. You get their support and if we can identify and follow through with them I think we have a win-win situation. We are in crisis and are doing everything we can to help."

Trying to reach a troubled child early is a goal that Dr. Bartley and Mr. Osborne say is vital and there is a project now in place to help monitor children from P1 on up. The programme identifies a troubled child and allow education officials to intervene and try and correct inappropriate behaviour.

"The IMPACT project was created to help in this area," said Dr. Bartley. " I is Intervention, M is for mentoring the students, P is for parental engagement, A is academic support, C is C to the third power and that stands for Counselling, Career Education and Community Service; T stands for therapy.

"When we went to Pennsylvania we shaped our visit with the IMPACT Project in mind. We said let's look at how the model alternative schools in the United States work and how they compare to what we are doing in Bermuda. Every time we visited a school we did a spot analysis that looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the sites we visited.

"We also identified opportunities for Bermuda, including opportunities that are realistic, relevant and that we can tie in to the alternative to our out-of-school suspension project. One of them is monitoring children who are at risk from preschool on up.

"The goal is to address the issues ahead of time. It's a preventive tool and we can get to those children before they are demonstrating those behaviours that will get them into trouble.

"We are looking at children who have difficulty fitting in. They are not throw-away children, they are children who still need our support as best as we can provide it."

Dr. Bartley said the visit to the United States provided Bermudian educators with some additional and valuable learnings.

"One of the things we found was the parents were aware the alternative school was an environment where their children were not only going to get their academic qualifications but also a place where the parents could get their academic qualifications in concert with what goes on in a regular school environment," she said.

"They are doing the same work as their peers and they will have a high school diploma at the end of it. The parents were happy with that."

Dr. Bartley and Mr. Osborne both agree that when it comes to children avoiding behavioural and developmental problems, it all starts at home with the parents.

"Parental engagement is vital," stressed Dr. Bartley. "In fact as we look at our alternative to the out-of-school suspension project, one of the aspects of the project we wil be emphasising is parental engagement.

"Everything begins at home. If we can marry the involvement of the home life with what's going on in school life then children have a 24-hour support system in place."

Mr. Osborne explained parental supervision extended to far more than just ensuring homework was being done.

"For instance, parents need to understand the importance of allowing their children to view healthy media including TV, video games and books," he said "They need to choose them wisely. Children are watching and playing things they aren't supposed to. They are learning inappropriate behaviour by osmosis. Imagine viewing some of these things over a period of time and becoming desensitised to the actual pain that those types of behaviours inflict. I find that many of our students have become desensitised. They are not able to empathise that such behaviour is really mean."

But, he added, it's not too late to teach children appropriate behaviours and Dr. Bartley pointed to some of the measures used to combat the growing desensitisation of youth to violence.

"Where there is life, there is hope," said Dr. Bartley. "Right now within our schools we have counsellors, psychologists, help from Child Services, educational therapists, social workers, conscientious teachers and forward-thinking principals. These are people who are looking at the children as they come in and asking, 'What can we do with these children? How can we help them to improve'?"

While benign parental neglect can indirectly cause children's bad behaviours by allowing them to be exposed to age-inappropriate entertainment material, there are also times when parents are the direct cause of their children's developmental issues.

"Sometimes the parent is the problem," said Mr. Osborne. "The child has recognised that their behaviour is off, is somewhat out of control, and wants to shift to the mainstream behaviour but the parent is at odds with that," he said. "Then this results in a conflict between the parent and school."

Dr. Bartley strongly urges parents to work with them, adding: "The key is if we can get the 24-hour support with parents working with us as we look to support their children in our schools.

"We are helping the parent to recognise the value of education. When they see their child is responding in this type of environment, I believe it has a positive impact on the parent, too.

"When the parents see that we as educators are determined to help their child to achieve no matter what the circumstances, I believe it makes an impact on them as well and may encourage more parental engagement."

Dr. Bartley has some final words of advice for parents, -"If parents keep their eyes on the prize - 'What do I want, what do I want for my child and how do I inspire my child?'- then no matter what happens around them or what they consider to be unpleasant experiences, then they will succeed."

Mr. Osborne agreed: "We are here to help. We need to look for win-win situations. It's not 'us and them'. It's just us. We all live here in this community. Educators want the best for all students. We all have to jump in to find solutions and keep the child in mind. It's always about the child."