“I have a niece in the United States. She’s in school from 7am to 5pm. She is so advanced!”—Danny, our host
“The education in the US is amazing. I keep telling my daughter how lucky she is and how she needs to work hard and take advantage of it. The books!! The materials!! And it’s all free! It’s nothing like school in Mexico.”— a parent of one of my students this year
In El Salvador, unlike Mexico, the public schools pay for everything—notebooks, uniforms, and food. In that way the public schools are similar to those in the US. (Though in the US we do ask parents to pay for notebooks and uniforms, so its not even as generous). The education itself is very different. School here is just four hours a day. There are separate morning and afternoon sessions for different sets of students taught by completely different teachers.
We got to visit one of the public schools with Goti, the sister of our our host Lucy, and her daughter Sofia. Goti teaches at the school and Sofia went there and then switched to the Friends’ school where we’re working. I asked Goti if it was possible to live on the salary, especially given that it was just four hours a day. She said yes, but not really enough to support a family. I asked if anyone worked both morning and afternoon. She looked at me like I was kind of thick and said, “No, other teachers need to work then.”
Also, at least this week, there aren’t even five full four hour days. Tuesday there was no school for Father’s Day. And today was Teacher’s Day, so no classes again. Instead there was a lovely program organized entirely by the oldest students in which all students participated. The oldest students walked the teachers in one by one to great applause. Every grade did some kind of presentation. There were silly skits in which teachers and students imitated each other. At the end of a two and a half hour program, during which the assembled student body of just over 100 only had to be shushed twice, all students filed out hugging each of the teachers. All students then went home except for the oldest, who then had a piñata for the teachers, helped set up and serve a teacher lunch, and then did all the clean up. The degree of love and appreciation expressed, and the degree to which it was all student-led, was really moving.
Classroom time consists of a lot of workbook and notebook time. No discussions. No question-generating. Few student engagement techniques. No discussion of strategies. And little differentiation for students of different abilities. Nothing for students to move on to once they get done. I knew most of this would be true going in. But just how different it would be I didn’t really understand. Also, there are no books besides student workbooks. No fiction. No non-fiction. No discussion of reading anything except the Bible. Actually, that’s an exaggeration. All the kids at the school do read one book together in the older grades. I know this because there’s a big poster about it in the office. But I’ve yet to see a book in a classroom.
Yet what I do see is a love and kindness I don’t see in the U.S. US readers, can you imagine the chips scenario taking place in the US? A teacher appreciation like the one I just experienced? And I’m torn on the education piece. I believe in having books in classrooms. And teaching students how to think and become life-long learners. But its also true that we’ve designed a system that serves the advanced well and the rest not so much. Take the student I had this year whose mom raved about the opportunities in the US. This student had some learning difficulties. Or at least they looked that way in a US context. The student couldn’t have been any harder-working. But, nonetheless, she wasn’t making typical progress. But I’m sure than in a Mexican school this kid would have been doing just fine. So is her US education a plus or a minus? She’ll end up knowing more, but she may feel like a less competent person that she would have in a different setting.
One thing that seems to be the same are the differences between public and private schools. The public school we visited was beautiful. Colorful murals covered the walls. Yet when we talked with Sofia we found out that there were serious discipline/safety problems and racism. She was quite relieved to be at the Friends’ school where she felt safe and said more learning was taking place. Our kids briefly went to a private high school. I don’t know if more learning was taking place but it was certainly safer and calmer. Kids from varied racial backgrounds mixed a lot more than seems to be the case in the public schools and the whole student body (which included many students of color) was college-bound. I say this not to indict the pubic schools (I think there are many things that make this the case that are not the fault of public schools) yet it is a reality.
Which gets me to thinking about poverty, and Jesus’ call to be with the poor, and the irony that private Christian schools are able to provide things that public schools can’t. But that, my friends, will be the subject of another post. If I don’t get carried away by something else first.
I'm thinking about how I've always considered "respect your elders" mainly a convenient doctrine for the elders. It has always seemed that it let them off the hook, giving them perhaps something they didn't earn. Like just breathing for 20 more years than the kids makes you worthy. But reading your posts, Laura, I'm struck that "respect your elders" is also a remarkably convenient doctrine for the young. A habit of gratitude makes us happier -- we know this. Certainly my cranky, critical students are not happier than the reflexively respectful Salvadoran kids. Perhaps the key thing about respecting parents and elders isn't whether they deserve it, but whether it makes society as a whole run more smoothly and happily. At least in a school setting, I think it does. It's easier to commit to doing the work if you believe in the teacher who assigned it. And the teacher will be a nicer, happier person, much pleasanter to learn with, if s/he is treated with respect. A virtuous cycle will be set in motion. I do think there's a downside. A habit of respecting elders can become an unwillingness to confront flaws, a disempowering of the critical activist side that we Americans are so fond of empowering in our "speak truth to power" style. I wonder if bad and unaccountable government isn't partly an outcome of the "respect the elders" culture. And if perpetual cranky discontent -- an endless "throw the bums out" mentality -- isn't the outcome of our culture. Could it be that Salvadoran politicians don't have to please by who they are and that US politicians cannot please because of who we are?
ReplyDeleteReally interesting. I think one of the best parts about life here is the degree to which gratitude and, in religon, enumeration of the many things God has given us and the constant acknowlegement and appreciation for God's presence in our lives. I think that kind of habit of gratitude and worship is good for people of all ages--and especially important to teach the young. Its interesting to me that while the talk here is much stricter--obey and and respect and do exactly what God through the bible and your parents say--the walk is often softer. There's more space for talking and silliness and roughhousing on the part of kids. And there's room to acknowledge conflict wothin famlies, like in the father's day worship Savannah described. I like your questions about cultural leanings towards authority and politics. When we were at NYM raoul said that the current government here is quite fsr left and were elected as a reaction against previous right wingers. He also said that folks were unlike to disagree publically much against the government because they didn't want a return to the right wing and really didn't want a return to war. In the US people's anti-authoritarianism is so easily manipulated by those with authoritarian leanings that its scary.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the story with the chips happening in the United States, but that's mostly because I can't imagine a school store here selling yuca chips.
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