Margaret Crotty This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. The World of Hibernia is both a chronicle of Irish diaspora, and celebration of Ireland and the Irish people throughout the world.

   www.twoh.com/summer97/crotty.c - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/15/2001   Last Visited: 7/15/2001

   Within the cinder-block walls of St. Mark's elementary school on 138th Street in Harlem , Margaret Crotty is a beacon of light. Despite her role as assistant principal , she is far from the disciplinarian type who normally fills such an office. The students in this school , founded 85 years ago for African-American children , clearly love Margaret Crotty for her smile , patience , and good heart. Most of these youngsters are blissfully unaware , however , that 18 months ago their Miss Margaret nearly drowned in a tragic ferry accident that claimed the lives of an estimated 350 passengers. Her story is one of humanitarianism and bravery in the face of incredible odds.
   
   Taking me on a tour of St. Mark's , Crotty beamed with pride about every classroom. Peeking into each one , she looked on with the eyes of a proud parent. In the hallways , the children were drawn to her as to a pied piper. Pick me up , Miss Margaret , a first grader begged , and Crotty obliged. No sooner had she placed her back down than she was asking again , Pick me up one more time.. Sensing some hesitation , the wide-eyed girl begged , Pull-eeeze , and the soft-hearted Crotty , much to the little one's delight , could not resist.
   
   When it appeared that we had come to the end of the tour , she said , Oh. And then there's our pre-K class.
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   Crotty has infused a breath of fresh air into the school , including the introduction of an alumni association and newsletter , a 14-member advisory board , and a parent home-school association. The latter , a sort of PTA , sponsored its first big event - a student talent show - this past spring. It is Crotty's goal that parents , alumni , and members of the community become actively involved in promoting the school and its mission. Students seem to sense that their school , which may be wanting in resources , is still a special place. What makes St. Mark's unique is the way they have teachers with loving hearts , said one sixth grader. A classmate added , We have fun when we learn. And there's no fighting or hate for one another..
   ...
   As a student at Princeton University , Crotty became interested in international development. That interest led to a summer in Morocco working with a community development program in 1993. It was 26 Moroccan men and me , said Crotty , describing the experience of living in an Islamic society as a bit of a culture shock. At first they treated her with curiosity but eventually came to respect her. It was an overwhelming challenge , she said of the experience.
   
   Upon graduating in 1994 with a degree in history , Crotty decided to go to Java , Indonesia , where she worked as a teacher of children with disabilities by day and taught English to university students at night. It was pretty pompous of me when I think about it now. I showed up not even knowing the language , said Crotty. She got by with sign language for the first few months , gradually picking up vocabulary. Of course , it would have been impossible to learn all of the 200 indigenous speech forms spoken in Indonesia ( each with its own dialect ) , but before long she was able to converse comfortably. After eight months in Java , Crotty accepted a position with the community development organization Save the Children.
   
   Although many parents would have discouraged their son or daughter from signing up for a long assignment in a Third World country , Crotty said that her parents were incredibly supportive and understanding.. After a brief period back home to prepare for her undertaking , she left again for Indonesia.
   
   The enthusiastic Crotty was in for a greater challenge than she had first realized. Her duties would often take her far from the modern conveniences of Java's major city of Djakarta into the smaller villages. I never had a telephone , and if I needed to make a call , I had to ride miles across town by bicycle to get to one.. For longer treks , Crotty often traveled from village to village by jeep through back roads and jungle. Another luxury that was in scarce supply was clean water. Fortunately , Crotty got sick only once , contracting dengue fever , a mosquito-borne disease marked by chills , muscle aches , swollen lymph nodes , and high fever. She was given the local treatment for the disease - a balsam massage - but essentially had to suffer the symptoms for four days until the disease ran its course.
   
   Such inconveniences rarely fazed Crotty , who immersed herself in the new position. Her main assignment was to prepare a report on all of the local projects that Save the Children had implemented in Indonesia over the previous 20 years.
   
   This meant compiling interviews with community elders and joining in on various programs. Once the report was completed , she was also responsible for making recommendations based on her findings. People were so open , she said. It was a thrill for both me and them.. Working with native women to encourage literacy and education was a great challenge for Crotty. There is no word for 'gender' in their language , let alone 'empowerment , ' she said , describing the difficulty of instructing women in an Islamic culture. Yet Crotty and her colleagues made progress. I would sit in on these women's literacy classes , and they would all of a sudden discover that in addition to [ making ] pottery , cooking , and having babies , they could read..
   
   In January 1996 , well into her assignment , Crotty embarked on a fateful ferry trip that would take her from her work and , for several weeks , put her at the center of world media attention.
   
   I planned to take a weekend trip to the island of Weh , off the coast of Sumatra , said Crotty. She hoped to use the time to pull together part of her report while also getting in some snorkeling and scuba diving. Her overprotective Save the Children colleagues , worried about Crotty traveling alone , escorted her to the ferry in the city of Banda Aceh and waited with her until the boat was to leave. The ferry was especially full because this voyage was taking place over the weekend just before Ramadan. Before this Muslim month of fasting , the faithful often take a mini-holiday in anticipation of the sacrifices of the season. As the afternoon wore on , the boat became more and more crowded. During my time in Indonesia , I took lots of buses and ferries I shouldn't have , said Crotty , acknowledging that she came to accept Third World realities in Indonesia that she would not have tolerated back home. Hours passed and the ferry , which was scheduled to leave at 2 p.m. , didn't depart until 7 p.m..
   
   Ninety minutes into the ferry's journey , the boat suddenly slowed down and began to tilt to one side. At first , Crotty and her fellow passengers were not sure what to make of the situation. During the next few minutes , the crew yelled at the passengers to shift to the high side of the boat to balance the weight load. The boat was at such an angle that it was difficult to walk up to the other side , Crotty remembered. By the time she reached the high side of the boat , it was quite clear that the ferry was going to sink. Crotty instinctively sought out the life vest cabinet. Although there were scarcely enough for everyone , she started handing vests to the people around her. To this day , Crotty is unsure why she didn't take a life vest for herself. I guess I didn't think I needed one , she said.
   
   By now , there was pandemonium on deck , and panicking passengers began jumping overboard. Not long after , the boat began to sink , quickly taking on water. The turn of events during the next few minutes is still a blur for Crotty. She was leaning over the life vest cabinet when the boat suddenly jolted , and she was knocked into the cabinet. I was completely submerged , swallowing water. I browned out a little , and the next thing I remember is regaining consciousness and swimming to the surface.. At this point , Crotty was so thrilled to be alive that she gave little thought to her dire situation. I was a little loopy , she recalled. I had just had a brush with death but made it out alive.. The ship was entirely underwater by the time Crotty surfaced and everywhere there were people flailing to stay afloat.
   
   Near Crotty was the ship's one and only life raft , which was upside down. Frantic passengers besieged the raft , sitting on top of it and clinging to its sides , all the while calling out to Allah. Meanwhile , Crotty and three other passengers - a British man and woman and a Swiss man who spoke English - clung to the ropes of the life raft. Crotty tried in vain to get the raft's passengers to debark so that the boat could be turned over , yet most of the Indonesians were unable to swim and feared being in the water. At this point , Crotty had still not allowed the seriousness of their situation to set in. We were sure that the captain must have radioed for help , she said. At the very worst , they expected that they might have to wait eight or nine hours until the local fishermen would set out for the next day's work.
   
   Alone in the wa