As my role of maestra (teacher) is further solidified here, more and more people have started talking to me about the educational system in Mexico. Everyone knows that their children need to go to school, that it's the most important thing they can do to help their kids have a better life. But they also know that their kids hate school, and they're not really learning anything.
I want to start off with a disclaimer and say that I'm working with some of the most under-privileged people of Cuernavaca. I don't know a thing about the schools in other places, or what it's like for wealthier children to attend school. I also know that there have to be good teachers somewhere, because their are highly educated people, but I spend most of my time tutoring kids, not observing teaching methods. That said, these are some of my reflections on what I've seen.
From what I've seen, the developmental milestones which were so helpful to me in my work in Las Cruces, that describe what most children are able to do and understand at different ages, aren't in place as guidelines here. Three-year-olds in the US are encouraged to scribble on blank paper, hopefully in semi-vertical lines. Three-year-olds in Mexico are expected to color neatly within the lines. Most six-year-olds in the US are still learning to write their names. Four-year-olds in Mexico are asked to write theirs without help.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing to me, though, is that pre-school isn't mandatory in Mexico, but the level of knowledge first graders are expected to posses before entering is not only beyond their developmental reach in my opinion, but also impossible to obtain unless they attended pre-school for at least two years. In the US, I think it's hard to deny that children who attend pre-school are ahead of the game. But I also think we try hard not to teach anything essential until the point at which ALL children are attending--early childhood curriculum, while encouraging skills that will enable future learning of reading, science, and math, really tend to lean on motor skills and social development.
I'm thinking, especially, of reading; if, in Mexico, your child doesn't learn to read when they're four, in pre-school, very little is done within the standard school system to make sure they learn how. If your child can't read, your child can't do their homework in any subject, and this line is drawn from the word go. And if your child can't do their work, gets consistently bad grades, and you have little to no time or energy to help them (if you can even read), how will your child feel about school? They're not likely to like it. They're not likely to want to go. They're likely to feel frustration and embarrassment and shame.
I am fully aware that I went to public school in a state with notoriously bad public schools. But I am so grateful for the talented and patient teachers I had (although I also had my share of bad teachers, I think), and that I never had to doubt whether I would have the opportunity to go to school. I ask you to remember that, although I write about Mexico, there are also people in the US who don't have the same opportunities for education that you and I often take for granted. Please, please, support the DREAM Act, which would give undocumented minors who have been in the US for an extended amount of time a chance to go to college. It's not difficult to write a quick letter or email to your representatives, and it makes a huge difference in the outcome of legislation. I definitely don't think that the DREAM Act is perfect, but it's a step in what I consider to be the right direction; it's a step toward realizing the ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.
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