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Sterling
School Celebrates Three Years of Special Education
By
Tom Kertes
Just
three short years ago, the borough of Brooklyn did not have a
single school specifically aimed at helping dyslexic children.
Now there is the Sterling School which started with three students
in 1999. Now 24 happy children populate the Pacific Street building.
Has the Sterling School been a resounding success? Brooklyn Borough
President Howard Golden certainly thought so as he presented Founder
Ruth Arberman with a special proclamation, declaring Monday, November
19th 2001 Sterling School Third Anniversary Day. “These
are wonderful kids here who will grow up to do some fabulously
important things,” Golden smiled as the two dozen 2-6 graders
were happily milling around him shouting things like “Mr. Golden,
I want to be a doctor!” “I want to be a chef!”
“But
I don’t think they could have reached their full potential without
Ms. Arberman and her staff,” Golden said.
“I’m
proud to say that we indeed have a unique place here,” Ms. Arberman
said after receiving her award. “While I was working as a Learning
Disabilities Specialist for 25 years, I became increasingly aware
that there was a need for helping dyslexic children.that was not
being filled by the public schools who simply didn’t have the
funding or the staff. The private schools could not, as they were
dealing with all kinds of different learning disabilities, mixing
them into one pot.”
“And
the truth is, when you try to help kids with all kinds of different
disabilities at the same time, you pretty much end up helping
no one,” added Arberman. “Dyslexia is a very specific condition,
one that needs specialized, and intensely individualized, treatment
by experienced professionals.”
Sterling uses the research-based, and highly lauded, Orton-Gillingham
methodology, designed specifically for dyslexic children. It has
classes no larger than eight, with a staff-to-student ratio close
to 2-1, as “individualized attention is a must,” according to
Ms. Arberman. “We individually design each student’s program to
follow a careful assessment of his or her processing strengths
and weaknesses, specific language skill deficits, and learning
styles.” All instruction is multi-sensory and aimed to impact
upon the students’ dyslexia-induced self-esteem and confidence
issues as well.
“As
a rule, dyslexics tend to be extremely bright children,” Arberman
said. “So, due to their disability, school becomes that much more
frustrating for them. Thus we go way beyond just teaching reading
and learning skills. We want children to become lovers of learning
by stimulating their imagination and have them experience a .large
measure of success.”
“Most
important, we refuse to lower the level of teaching to the kids’
level of reading,” added Arberman. “Instead we use a multi- sensory
approach in order to follow a rigorous curriculum that easily
reaches, indeed surpasses, required mainstream standards.”
Sterling costs $20.000 a year, but “half of it is reimbursable
by the State if you seek ‘Carter’ funding,” Arberman said. “But,
beyond that, most parents tell us that they save so much money
on therapists, psychiatrists etc. by having their child with us
that, in the end, they actually end up financially ahead.” #
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
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