Elizabeth Ruffle

I am a Special Education teacher from the Englewood Public Schools District. Passionate about what I do, I am concerned that legislators do not fully understand what we are doing, or trying to do in the classroom.

Before coming to Englewood eighteen years ago, I taught in Argentina. I worked for four years in Villa Urquiza outside of Rosario, Argentina's second largest city. The children lived in semi-precarious dwellings, usually without running water. The tiny school provided by the State could not accommodate all of the children in the villa.

The overloaded public school was on split session so I ran a school tutorial program in the mornings. I worked out of a modest, three room house on the edge of the villa. Those bare foot children taught me a great deal about how children learn and they showed me what was possible with a little bit of faith.

Before going to Argentina, I studied at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I received a M. Ed. in Special Education. My undergraduate training was completed at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. I graduated with a BA in Sociology. At the time, I never thought I would become a teacher.

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