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Published: December 6th 2007
Guanajuato, Mexico is a breathtaking state complete with rolling hills, vibrant cities, and picturesque landscapes. Its inhabitants value their culture, take pride in their history, and love their country. So why do so many of my students’ families leave their home in the hills to make a new home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania? The answer is two-fold - to find work and to educate their children. This past summer I experienced Guanajuato for myself. After just one week in this beautiful state I understood why it would be so hard to leave and I learned why so many have to.
Initial Learnings
I arrived in Mexico at 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday June 24th. My traveling companions (13 graduate students, two interpreters and one professor from West Chester University) and I were just in time for the last week of school. We were there for a weeklong study of the Mexican education system. I, however, left with much more.
From the very moment we landed I learned how hard-working, welcoming, and accommodating Mexican people are. Whether is was the van driver or the poor soul in charge of moving all our luggage in the 90 degree heat, everyone
El Mesón de los Poetas
the open air lobby of our beautiful home away from home.I interacted with was incredibly hospitable. For example, the driver detailed different hot spots to visit during our stay, explained the history of all the sites we drove past, and answered all our questions with enthusiasm. When asked about the best place to eat in Guanajuato, he joked, “mi casa” and invited us to join him for dinner if we found time. This initial warm welcome was present throughout the remainder of the week, as everyone from the principals and school officials to wait staff and random strangers on the street were kind and helpful.
Higher Learning
Before traveling to this country, I read and learned much about the education system. Mexico has a federal education system that enforces a national curriculum. They provide free schooling through the ninth grade, but due to lack of transportation, students typically only complete grade six. While high school, preparatoria, is available to students, it comes at a cost and access is limited due to a lack of schools. For example, the city of Guanajuato, which has a population of over seventy thousand, only has one public preparatoria. So it is very likely that high school age students who immigrate to
the United States have been out of school for three or more years.
Much of this knowledge was reaffirmed during an intercambio with Guanajuato’s school officials on my first morning in Mexico. However, while sitting in a small, crowded conference room overlooking beautiful mountain vistas, I experienced my first of many eye-opening revelations. For some reason, probably because they are a poorer nation who lack the ability to provide as complete an education to their students as the United States does, I assumed the Mexican education system was primitive in its approach and goals. I was ignorant. I learned that their general vision and goals are similar to America’s - provide the best education possible for their children. They just have fewer resources: schools, teachers, classroom materials, transportation, etc. than America. However, they are working hard and continuously developing programs and strategies that improve the education of their students. This meeting helped me appreciate what I have as a teacher in the United States and respect what they are trying to do with what they have as teachers in Mexico.
After the meeting, I continued my education by traveling up into the hills of Guanajuato to visit a pilito primaria
(pilot elementary school). The identically clad children were excited to see us, the administrators bent over backwards to accommodate us, and the teachers welcomed us into their classrooms. This experience continued to confirm the hospitality I had come to learn most Mexicans embrace. During this visit, I was surprised by the technology the school had - several classrooms were equipped with smartboards and LCD projectors. This is technology I do not even have in my own classroom. I had the opportunity to observe a history lesson taught out of a textbook, but aided by a projected website on the smartboard. The crowded class of over thirty 5th grade students followed along as the teacher highlighted and added to important passages on the smartboard. The lesson seemed very interactive and the students were excited to answer questions and use the smartboard themselves.
This technology was only the beginning of the resources this school had to offer their students. They had computers and TVs in every classroom, special education and special subject teachers, a well manicured common area for lunch and recess, and a small library. They even hosted an assembly complete with unicycle riding clowns for the students on the day
we visited. Through discussion, I learned that this school is one of several pilot schools that are testing the use of technology in the classroom. The teachers seemed excited to have access to such resources and they were eager to show it off to us. This trip changed my misconceived perception of Mexican schools as poverty stricken and ill equipped.
Learning Through the Road Less Traveled
At the end of the school day, a few classmates and I were provided with a serenaded, bumpy ride to the Museo de las Momias (Mummy Museum). While sitting on the floor in the back of a van, we sang along as Ernesto, the school’s music teacher, strummed
La Bamba on his guitar. As I cleverly changed the words to La Bumba, I smiled about the day and wondered what eye-opening experiences the rest of the trip would offer.
I did not have to wait long for my next enlightening experience. During the morning meeting, I met our guide for the week, the Guanajuato State Education Co-coordinator, Mario Montero. Mario quickly proved to be a smooth talking, fun loving, all encompassing guide who went out of his way to educate, inform, and entertain
Our Guide
Mario happily poses for a picture behind his desk. us. On the night of day two, he invited several of us to join him for a back roads tour of Guanajuato. He drove us up and down steep, cobbled roads that went past breath taking views of the colorful city. He brought us to El Pipila and the Mellado Mine where we had the opportunity to watch Guanajuato city fade into darkness from above. Throughout our entire journey, he entertained us with stories of Gunajuato’s rich history. We learned about Miguel Hidalgo’s fight for independence and Pipila’s fiery insurgence. As Sister Conseula, our interpreter, explained, “Mexicans are happy when you are happy.”
However, the most enlightening part of the evening for me was when we strayed from the regularly traveled path and visited Mario’s childhood home. He invited us into his home to pray with his dying father. While I had read about aspects of Mexican’s culture that should have prepared me for this experience - views on death, hospitality, people over schedules, etc., I was caught off guard by where the night had taken me. I was touched that Mario wanted us to pray with him and his ill father, but the American side of me couldn’t help
A view from the top
Mario snaps our picture above Guanajuato city, next to the Pipila but feel out of place and a bit uncomfortable. However, I stifled this discomfort, bowed my head and prayed the Lord’s Prayer twice, once in English and once in Spanish. Before leaving, I squeezed the sick man’s hand and tried to communicate through my eyes how much I hoped for him and how much this experience touched me. During our winding walk through the city streets back to the hotel, I learned that Mario’s father had spent most of his life working as a migrant farmer in California so he could provide for Mario and his eight brothers and sisters. Mario was the only one of the nine children to go to Preparatoria and University. He confessed to feeling guilt over the expense his education had cost his father and he said he would work hard for the rest of his life to prove the education was worth it.
On the Edge of Learning
On day four I experienced a different side of Mexico’s education system, one that I think is more of a reality for many Mexican students and teachers. We traveled three hours from Gunajuato city to Santa Monica Ozumbilla, Yuriria, a small rancho outside of Moroleon.
Our welcoming hosts
The mothers who prepared our feast pose for a picture As we passed the city and moved into it’s rural outskirts, the tree lined streets and big, colorful buildings were slowly replaced by low-lying shrubs and small, windowless shacks. As the pavement turned to dirt, the bus slowed its speed and I was able to catch second long glimpses in to the lives of the rural inhabitants through their door-less entryways. Mangy dogs roamed aimlessly, dark-skinned women hung laundry, and babies crawled on dirt floors. It did not take long to realize these people were poor.
Mario explained that many children in this town did not move past the sixth grade because it was more crucial for them to work than learn. He explained that few men live in this town because they cannot find work, so instead many of them move to the United States in search of employment. In a meeting I had with school officials later in the week, I learned that this problem is not unique to Moroleon. Rather officials from Dolores Hidalgo, a town over two hours away form Moroleon, explained that the greatest income for Mexico is people working in the United States. Many communities depend on that income because the majority of their
men are in the U.S.
Despite the obvious poverty of the area, we were warmly greeted at the school with a generous lunch prepared by the mothers of the students. After our feast of frijoles and taquitos, we made our way around the small campus and into the classrooms. I was not surprised by the conditions of the school, as the drive there prepared me for the experience. The campus consisted of two brick buildings with four schoolrooms and a concrete common area outside for eating and playing. They had a lack of resources, as they had just one telephone line (which we were told was put in last year), one computer, four TVs, textbooks and not much else. The televisions, which were mounted to the classroom walls and locked behind metal bars, are an integral part of this school’s curriculum. The school is known as a Telesecundaria, which is a school that utilizes televised lessons to bring education out to rural areas.
During my visit, I was able to observe a 9th grade English language lesson. The lesson was structured so the students watch a TV lecture then complete workbook exercises that are led by the teacher. Very few
students seemed to be interested in the lesson, as the Maestra (teacher) explained that all the kids want to go to America, but they don’t want to learn English. She said that they don’t think it is important. I can’t say that I blame them. Many of them will probably work as laborers someday, and since this was their last week of their last year of education, they have stopped caring. This reminds me of some of the seniors I have taught in past years.
A continuing problem in Mexico is providing for the rural citizens, who make up approximately half of the total population. One way Mexico is trying to solve this problem is through the creation of programs such as the Telesecundaria. However, a short walk down the street to the local primaria provided visual proof that most students who live outside the edge of urban areas do not continue their education. The primaria was overflowing with hundreds of students, while the Telesecundaria had a total population of less fifty students. This visual was affirmed the next day during a meeting in Leon, as the director of education explained that only one third of students move from the
primaria to secondaria (from elementary school to middle school), only one third of those students move on to preparatoria, and one percent of those students go on to any post high school education. So in other words, roughly 11 out of every 100 students goes to high school and about 1 out of every 1000 students go to college. However, there is hope. This hope is evident in the school officials who have faith in their system and continuously work hard to improve it. It is brought to fruition through the creation and integration of improvement programs, such as Telesecundaria. And this hope is carried out by the overworked teachers who struggle to provide the best education possible to their students. As Mario explained, fifty more students are receiving and education today than just a few years ago. So while the situation may be harsh in some places, I saw a lot to prove it will get better one step at a time.
Final Learnings
There are so many adjectives I can use to describe this trip: educational, memorable, exciting, adventurous, enlightening, exhausting, jam-packed, heart-touching, breath taking, life changing. I learned so much more from my week in Guanajuato,
Mexico than I could have from a pile of books or a series of courses. First, I was able to personally experience the beautiful and vibrant city of Guanajuato. I never tired of walking up, down, and around in circles. With every turn, I stumbled on some beautiful vista, quaint shop, or interesting people to watch. I was also able to experience the nuances of the Mexican culture first hand - from the overwhelming generosity of everyone I met to praying with Mario’s dying father. I learned to step outside my comfort zone and embrace the experiences of the culture around me. Finally, I witnessed the variety of schools in Guanajuato and the strides everyone, officials, administrators, and teachers, are taking to provide the best education to today’s students and improve their system for tomorrow’s. It has been months since my trip to Guanajuato, and a piece of me still longs to return to those rolling hills and that welcoming culture. I can only imagine how hard it is for so many of my students who have to leave their beautiful home in the hills in hopes of a better education. A better life.
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rererewr
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observations
Some obervations, my guess you misunderstood some of the figures you were given. In Mexico, the 14% of the students pursue higher education. Here´s the link, just need to add each fragment as the travelblog system automatically would stripped it. www.jornada.unam.mx/ 2007/10/15/index.php? section=sociedad&article=044n1soc Also, less than 1/4 of the Mexican population live in rural areas.