Student of the Week Competition: Children's Book

Aide Perez Campos is a third year student at Ziquitaro’s junior high. She won the most recent student of the week contest with her children’s book entitled “The Boy with His Dog”. She has written a short profile to accompany her picture: I am fifteen years old. I like to play sports like soccer. I also like to dance, sing, run and do many other things. I am a very happy person. My dream is to go to the United States and continue studying, because that way I can have a professional career.

Berinice Alvarez is a second year student at Ziquitaro’s junior high. She won the first student of the week competition with her detailed family tree. Her children’s book entitled “The Boy and the Ocelot” won her first prize once again. Her book is very coherent and grammatically correct, but it is the story she tells as well as her illustrations which sets her work apart from the rest of the class. The book tells the story of a bond created between a young boy and an ocelot as the boy attempts to save the ocelot from greedy hunters. Berinice explains her inspiration for writing the story: The ocelot is a fascinating animal, so I wanted to tell a story about his life and the difficulties he encounters.

Community Support

Today I began the bulk of my research for my thesis which will explore how the Mexican federal government’s poverty alleviation program progresa-oportunidades has actually worsened the quality of education in rural Mexican towns (see blog entry entitled “The Hidden Faults of Progresa” to learn more). While I wanted to interview a large sample of my junior high students’ parents, I now find myself with limited time as I will be returning to Berkeley in mid-may. So, Michel and I set up a large parent teacher meeting with the parents of each age group in order to explain my project and give out an anonymous survey about their thoughts and concerns regarding the program. Once I receive the completed surveys I am going to narrow my questions and then interview a few of the parents individually for a more in-depth perspective. During the meeting I also explained the progress of their students, the research I am doing and the long term goals for the project here in Ziquitaro.

While I set up the meeting primarily as an avenue in which to send out my surveys, it actually turned into a lively conversation about the continuation of the English classes. When Michel and I told the parents that we are in the process of making the work we are doing in Ziquitaro a long term project with a steady stream of volunteers, their eyes lit up. They began to express their gratitude for the English classes which they acknowledged to be an invaluable resource for young people in a migrant sending community like Ziquitaro. The parents also offered to help in any way they could with the new incoming volunteers. Preparing meals for volunteers and helping with transportation were just two of the many ideas they brainstormed.

The town members’ enthusiasm in stride with our conviction about the importance of these classes has pushed Michel and I to create a non profit organization around the work we are doing here in Ziquitaro. Continuing the English classes will hopefully just be the start as we hope to expand the organization to deal with other challenges the community faces. While obtaining legal non-profit status is a long process, we have already begun aspects such as designing a strategic plan, and a preliminary mission statement. We will keep you posted as the process unfolds.

Education on Hold for Ziquítaro's Fourth Graders

Yesterday Michel and I finally had a chance to meet with a state congress representative to discuss certain concerns about Ziquitaro’s educational system. Our primary concern is the suspension of fourth grade classes since December due to the lack of a teacher. This topic is extremely close to my heart as roughly half of the children in my afternoon class are fourth grade students. Their mothers began sending them to my class so that they could take advantage of the only educational opportunity being offered to them in the town.

Not only do the fourth grade students attend every class, but they are the most prepared, the most attentive and the most helpful. The brightest students I have in my afternoon class are precisely four fourth grade girls. While they have soared in their English comprehension, their lack of formal schooling shows. For example, the brightest of these four exceptional girls always does extra assignments and stays late to learn more words. With my help she has learned how to spell many words in English as well as how to sustain a simple conversation. Yet, despite her strengths she gave me a drawing a few days ago with her name spelled wrong in the corner. Obviously she is not receiving the basic schooling she deserves. These girls have explained to me how much they desperately want to return to school and study, yet they do not know if they are ever going to have a chance to finish the fourth grade.

A group of fourth grade grils with their English projects

Luckily, the local congress representative, who is actually from Ziquitaro, seemed genuinely concerned about the situation and said that he would immediately have the fourth graders’ parents sign a petition which he would then use in congress to begin working towards a solution. While we must wait and see what comes out of his actions, in the meantime I am going to give the fourth graders in my English class a few pages of math, science and Spanish homework a week, which I will then correct and review with them.

The other concerns we discussed with the representative were in regards to the Junior High; the excessive cancellation of school days without adequate reasoning (for example, school was cancelled once last week and twice this week) as well as the alarming rate of teacher absenteeism. While the Junior High teachers are usually on school grounds they are out of their classrooms roughly 60% of the time. Rather than teaching in their classrooms they give their students activities and worksheets and then most leave their classrooms and sit and chat in the staff room and drink coffee. I am not the only one who is concerned. A student’s response to a recent survey question I asked - “what changes would you like to see in your school?”- speaks for itself: “I would like it if the teachers paid more attention to us and were not always drinking coffee in the office”.