�鶹APP

When Noelia Garella was a child, a nursery school rejected her as �鶹APP�a monster�鶹APP�. Now 31, she is in a class of her own.

In the face of prejudice, she is the first person with Down�鶹APP�s syndrome to work as a preschool teacher in Argentina �鶹APP� and one of the few in the world.

Garella�鶹APP�s case set a precedent after the school confronted a taboo �鶹APP� could a person with a cognitive syndrome be in charge of a class?

Her two- and three-year-old pupils crowd around her affectionately in her classroom in the Jermonito nursery.

At her bidding, they sit down for a story and watch engrossed as she reads, following her lead as she imitates a shark, baring her teeth.

�鶹APP�I adore this. Ever since I was little, I have always wanted to be a teacher, because I like children so much,�鶹APP� she tells AFP.

�鶹APP�I want them to read and listen, because in society people have to listen to one another.�鶹APP�

Garella�鶹APP�s determination inspired her colleagues to hire her at the preschool in the northern city of Cordoba, despite reservations in some quarters.

One party �鶹APP�in a position of responsibility�鶹APP� judged that she should not take classes because of her condition, said Alejandra Senestrari, the former director of the school who hired Garella.

Teachers, parents and even the city�鶹APP�s mayor weighed in. They decided there was no reason Garella could not teach early-learning reading classes.

�鶹APP�With time, even those who had been opposed joined in the initiative to hire Noe as a teacher,�鶹APP� said Senestrari.

�鶹APP�We very quickly realised that she had a strong vocation. She gave what the children in the nursery classes most appreciate, which is love.�鶹APP�

A genetic condition, Down�鶹APP�s syndrome typically affects a person�鶹APP�s physical and intellectual growth. In Garella�鶹APP�s case, it has done nothing to diminish her optimism and self-belief.

Standing by her side, her mother Mercedes Cabrera looks tearful when her daughter tells the story of the day care centre director who told Garella�鶹APP�s parents: �鶹APP�No monsters here.�鶹APP�

But Garella smiles. �鶹APP�That teacher is like a story that I read to the children,�鶹APP� she says. �鶹APP�She is a sad monster, who knows nothing and gets things wrong. I am the happy monster.�鶹APP�

Other countries have stories of people with Down�鶹APP�s syndrome who have become teachers.

But Garella�鶹APP�s case is thought to be the first in Latin America, where disagreement over whether pupils, let alone teachers, with Down�鶹APP�s syndrome should be accepted in public schools has generated controversy in the past.

Garella�鶹APP�s colleagues have been moved by her case.

�鶹APP�It has been a unique experience for the staff,�鶹APP� says Susana Zerdan, current director of the preschool. 

�鶹APP�The way the children accept her, incorporating her naturally into the school �鶹APP� there is a lesson in life there for us all.�鶹APP�

Garella first joined the Cordoba public education system as an assistant for reading classes in 2012.

�鶹APP�I always feel good with the children. Their parents love me and the other teachers and principals I have had are wonderful,�鶹APP� she says.

She likes to do Latin dancing in her spare time. She dreams of having children of her own and lately has been feeling flutters because she has �鶹APP�met someone�鶹APP�.

She has been jointly in charge, with another teacher, of a class in the Jermonito preschool since January.

�鶹APP�I have a boy with Down�鶹APP�s syndrome in my class. He is wonderful,�鶹APP� she says. �鶹APP�Oh, it is lovely when someone like me is born.�鶹APP�