Learning is a crucial part of children’s lives. But when illness forces kids to leave the classroom, they don’t have to stop hitting the books.
Even from his hospital bed in Montreal, Mario Futia is eager to learn. He diligently does his homework, ignoring the tubes from the machine that keeps him alive. Futia undergoes dialysis three to four times a week as he waits for a new kidney.
“I’m six years old and I’m going to be big and big,” he told CTV News.
For kids who have to spend long hours in Montreal Children's Hospital, some teachers come to them. That’s especially important to Alyssa Maraj, who is in her last year of high school but has to be at the hospital three days a week for dialysis treatments that last five hours. Maraj says she wouldn’t be able to graduate on time if weren’t for these special sessions outside the classroom.
“Being one on one, they get to know you, how you learn and your difficult points,” Maraj said. “So, they would target that area and help you the most in those.”
While teachers enjoy being in a smaller setting so they can tailor the workload to each students’ needs, teaching in a hospital can also take an emotional toll.
For teacher Sylvie Dubuc, it’s hard knowing that her students’ health can change drastically from one day to the next.
“They’re in the hospital because it doesn’t go very well physically, or sometimes mentally,” Dubuc told CTV Montreal.
But studying -- and even doing homework – helps children feel more like regular kids and less like patients, teacher Peter Tsatoumas says.
“School is not mandatory for the kids that are here,” Tsatoumas told CTV News. “But I think one of the reasons we do it is just to kind of keep some kind of stability and keep it normal, I think, for them.”
With a report from CTV’s Vanessa Lee
