School days

After living here for a month, I have established regular visit days at three different schools. Each is within San Cristóbal city limits, but they are truly different.

I. 31 de marzo is a public school toward the periphery of the city. Although it is not a bilingual school, it does have a large indigenous population, and the academic needs of the students are high. I connected with this school through my Claremont contact, who had helped with an investigation project with my Alfabetización y cultura teachers and who provided tutoring to a small group of students for a few years afterward. I followed her lead and offered to work with groups of 4th-6th graders on literacy. I think it will serve as a great way to collaborate with the teachers at the school, and I am excited about doing a little teaching again.

II. Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez is a large and prestigious public school. There are 3 sections of each grade, first through sixth, with as many as 40 students per class. I agreed to help the school in designing a plan for teaching English as part of their extended day program. According to the law in Mexico (and most Central American countries, I believe), English instruction is a mandatory part of primary school. In practice, this often doesn´t happen - perhaps because the teachers do not speak English? It presents a challenge for even the better supported schools.

Second graders do a lot of work with wordplay - tongue twisters, poems, rhymes

Very engaging group work filling this graphic organizer on Mesoamerican
 civilizations in sixth grade.

III. Pequeño Sol is a private school where many expats send their children. My first day, I joined the morning meeting of the second grade class. Morning meeting is part of Responsive Classroom, a social curriculum which they employ much more faithfully than we do at my school in DC. In the meeting, the students asked me questions about myself and introduced themselves, sharing what they liked (baby tigers, art, videogames) and what they disliked (bothersome siblings, pizza crust, bathing...) One girl shared about a trip around the world she had taken with her family.

For this group, February is the "mes de conferencias," when students present independent research projects, all connected to a general theme of San Cristóbal de las Casas. I was blown away by the 10 minute exposition by one shy boy (coincidentally the son of the principal) on domestic and wild plants.

The fact that families of this private school are unique in being able to support a mostly-outside of school project like this is similar to the public/private, wealthy/poor school dichotomies in the US. Beyond this, though, the differences in school culture and values are also striking. Pequeño Sol clearly values creativity and autonomy. Students speak to adults almost as peers, they do not wear uniforms, and they are encouraged to think outside the box in their academic tasks. Meanwhile, in the public schools, students wear uniforms, they stand up when adults enter the room, and assignments seem to be evaluated mostly based on accuracy (one expected answer) and neatness.

 All of these traits - creativity, independence, respect, accuracy, and appearance - are valuable. It is not hard to imagine, however, that emphasis on some over others may be a way of preparing children for specific roles in a societal hierarchy.

Students respond to their classmate´s presentation on native plants of San Cristóbal

First graders write the colors in their flower drawings

Evidence of Responsive Classroom -
time out slips