AME, or Academy of Multiple Intelligences Education of Davao, formally opens its school today. The school carries the philosophy that children deserve to live a meaningful and productive life and should be given proper intervention programs inherent for the learners' complete development as individuals.
AME adheres to equal opportunity for both the mentally able as well as the especially able. With this in mind, its curriculum will be based on the Multiple Intelligences approach as a holistic way of learning.
The school further believes that every child has her own intelligences level. The learner may be Word Smart or Number Smart, or Body Smart, or Picture Smart, or Music Smart, or People Smart, or Self Smart or Nature Smart.
Identifying where each child's strength is on the various areas of intelligences will allow the learner a better understanding of herself and her participation in the complex world around her.
AME believes on the equality of children's rights; this philosophy runs complementary to the Department of Education's objective as embodied in the Philippine Constitution of 1987 Magna Carta for Disabled persons, an act providing for the rehabilitation, self-development and self-reliance of disabled persons and their integration into the mainstream of society.
Based on figures by the Department of Education, Davao City alone has more than 6000 children with distinctive learning handicaps of varying degrees. These disabilities range from minor dyslexia to hyper autism with so many types in-between.
Given the very few learning centers/schools qualified to provide professional support, AME will tip the scale as the school that will advocate mainstreaming while providing Developmental Curriculum and Special Education Program.
AME will definitely meet the needs and abilities of each child by: accepting and respecting the uniqueness of each as an individual, providing opportunities and growth for children to their fullest potentials and independence, giving the appropriate placement and curriculum for children to acquire their own learning pace through individualized educational plan/program, helping the parents and families of each child through a collaborative team approach in fostering learning environment and continuum education at home and maintaining a world-class educational system that hones the skills of our teachers and support teams in molding the child's learning progress.
"Our success mainly depends on the sincere participation of the parents... our collaborative approach to learning will bring the teaching process into the very hearts of the families of our children," explains Erlinda Aguilar, AME's school administrator.
Different expertise in the field of special education as well as regular education will be pooled together to provide the very strong foundation for AME. This very range of specialties allows AME to answer to the very complex challenges of education today.
"In addition to our training teachers, we will also have a child psychologist, occupational therapist, a physical and speech therapist in our staff. All students will always be assured of the best of all fields in one sitting," Aguilar said.
