CBC Newsworld's Passionate Eye to air documentary on The Children's on January 30

Monday January 30,  2006  at 10pm ET/PT on  CBC Newsworld

A moving and introspective documentary that follows two teachers through their school year at a major paediatric hospital in Montreal. This film goes straight to the heart of the matter, entering into the intense one-on-one relationships developed between teachers and their students in the course of their studies. The teachers help their students to grow and progress, despite the limitations imposed by their confinement to hospital, the indeterminate duration of their stays and their compromised health. Theirs is an uncertain journey.

We watch as Philippe and Louise devote their full attention to their students' ever-changing  emotions and health, respecting and adapting to their weaknesses and limitations. These teachers take the time to explain all their course material in detail. And it is plain to see how elated the children are when, in the hour they spend with a teacher, they are able to understand something they could just never seem to grasp in a classroom situation. They are delighted to learn new things, but all the more pleased when they grasp the deeper meaning of what they are learning.

When students' hospital stays drag on, their health fails, a prognosis looks bad and their motivation lags, hospital teachers naturally fall into the role of confidents and are privy to their personal experiences. Gifted with an unusual aptitude for understanding others, these teachers have a stimulating but difficult role to fulfill - especially when the health of the children and teens they work with is seriously threatened. As the Director of the hospital school once said, "You just never get used to watching children suffer."

Hospital School is about teachers and students, revealing the impact of the genuine caring that goes into teaching sick children. We can all identify with relationships that build self-esteem, independence and personal strength to meet life's challenges head-on - relationships that remind us that, come what may, life goes on. This is a film about hope.

Directed by Dominque Parent and Lysanne Thiodeau from Les Productions Virage Inc.