A New Life: Catherine de Maré has worked in some of the toughest teaching situations imaginable but, she tells Susan Calnan, there is always a way to reach students
From the precarious surroundings of a high school classroom in Harlem to the daunting reality of Reiby detention centre in Australia, Catherine de Maré has worked with some of the most difficult teenagers on both sides of the globe.
Today, the London-born mother of two has combined her diverse experiences and is using her specialist teaching abilities to work as a home tutor in Dublin, with teenagers who have been expelled from school or who are not suited to a regular classroom environment due to learning or behavioural problems.
"Working in this area is a sort of vocation in a sense," admits the soft-spoken de Maré.
"This type of work certainly requires someone with a calm temperament, who can relate to children and listen to what they have to say."
Although de Maré professes a love of teaching, her route into this area of education was not totally straightforward. After completing a degree in Chinese and living in China for a year, she moved to New York in the early 1980s to study for a masters in education, when she met her US-born husband David.
A stint working as a secretary at the World Trade Center helped her realise that she had a knack for dealing with difficult customers and that she wanted to quit her job and work at something that had more meaning for her.
After working as a substitute teacher for some months, de Maré eventually secured a job in one of the toughest schools in New York's Harlem district, teaching English and maths to 13 to 15-year-olds.
"In the beginning, it was a bit hair-raising. Most of the children had some sort of behavioural problem, such as ADHD, so a situation could escalate at any moment, where a fight would break out in the classroom or where they'd start throwing chairs out the window," she says.
Despite the problems, de Maré managed to build up a relationship with her students and became quite attached to them over the two years that she worked there.
"One of the first things I learned to do was to scrap all of my middle class values. I also learned that you wouldn't get anywhere by shouting at these kids or by being dogmatic; the best way to get through to them was by being calm at all times and by sticking to a particular regime everyday, to give them a sense of stability and structure."
Although de Maré thoroughly enjoyed the work, she and her husband eventually decided it was time for a change and, after five years, left New York for Australia, where her husband secured a new lecturing post, teaching maths and finance at Sydney University.
Through word of mouth, de Maré also secured a new teaching job at Reiby detention centre - a centre for violent teenage offenders who had been charged with murder, assault or sexual abuse.
"This was a much more dangerous environment than the one in Harlem, as a lot of the teenagers were very disturbed, suffering from psychological disorders or drug withdrawal," she says.
"You literally had to have eyes on the back of your head and be very careful about who you put sitting next to each other.
"I had 10 pencils on my desk each day and at the end of every class I had to make sure that all the pencils were put back properly in case someone would take them and use them as a weapon."
As well as the constant threat of violence at the centre, de Maré also had to contend with the racial divisions in Australian society. More than 75 per cent of her students were aboriginal, for instance, and many of them had not yet learned to read even though they were in their mid-teens.
"It really made me aware just how excluded the Aborigines were from white Australian society. Out of all the time I spent in Sydney, I only once saw an Aboriginal family in the city."
Although de Maré sometimes found it difficult to relate to her students, she discovered that the simple skill of listening to what they had to say produced immeasurable results.
"Even though I was there to teach, a lot of the time I was like their psychotherapist. So many of them had such a great need to talk about their past, to tell their story," she says.
"For example, many of the Aborigine teenagers had been taken away from their families and brought up in missionaries. I think the best thing I did for them was simply listening to their story and acknowledging what they had to say and what they had experienced; in a sense it was like a form of healing for them."
Despite the many memorable experiences and attractions of Australia, de Maré and her husband once again decided it was time for a change and, two-and-a-half years ago, moved to Ireland as they both felt it would be a better place to bring up their two children.
Although unsuccessful in her attempt to secure a primary school teaching job in Ireland, de Maré was invited by the Department of Education to work as a home tutor with students who have behavioural or learning problems, such as ADHD, dyslexia, asperger syndrome and autism.
Many of these teenagers are unsuited to a regular classroom environment and to ensure that they receive ongoing education, de Maré provides 10 hours of teaching to each student on a one-to-one basis in their homes.
"Some of the kids might have learning problems that wouldn't have been identified until much later; so in a sense it's easy to understand why they become so frustrated in a normal classroom environment.
"Also, one of the things that has struck me since working in Ireland is just how narrow the secondary school curriculum is: the junior and leaving certificate doesn't suit everyone and, as a result, some people just don't do as well in school or they fall behind.
"This is a pity because usually every student has some particular strength, which should be nurtured. For example, one of the students I'm teaching is brilliant at maths; another has a great sense of spatial awareness and has a talent for building things."
Although de Maré says the home tutoring system works well, she feels there is an enormous lack of educational services for teenagers with learning or behavioural problems.
"One of the major things that I've learnt from working with teenagers in New York and Australia is that there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all curriculum and that you can't force education down people's throats."