Reflections

After a busy last three weeks in Ziquítaro the first stage of the project has come to an end. I am now back in California and I am working on forming a non-profit organization which will help facilitate new waves of volunteers as well as an expansion of the project.

The last three weeks in Ziquítaro were dedicated to pulling the English classes to a closure, setting up contacts for the organization as well as finishing my thesis research. Michel and I were also flooded with last minute questions regarding immigration forms and other legalities. The highlights were the meeting with the junior high student’s parents as well as throwing the numerous goodbye parties.

We held a meeting with the parents of my junior high students on Friday, our last day in Ziquítaro, so that we could have the liberty to speak freely with them about the dire situation at the junior high without putting my English classes at jeopardy. Although we understood that the meeting could create complications with next year’s junior high English classes, Michel the priest and I decided that if one of the organization’s goals is to improve the quality of education in Ziquítaro then we had to adequately inform and empower the town members about the situation of their children’s education so that they can make the necessary changes. If our classes are banned from the junior high we can always teach them after school in my classroom.

After packing all of the parents into the priest’s house we began with a brief overview of the importance of education for their children– whether they stay in Mexico or leave for the US- as well as about the formation of the NGO and the continuation of the classes. Then we dove into the core of the meeting; the instruction at the junior high. I gave the parents an overview of the situation and then I presented them with the statistics that I gathered from my study. The most concerning result was the amount of teacher absenteeism (time spent outside of the classroom). I took a 2 month sample of their absenteeism by taking teacher attendance every day at 10 am. The results were lamentable: both Gloria and Martin (seventh grade and eighth grade year teacher respectively) were out of their classrooms 100% of the time when I took role. Most often they were in the staff room eating, drinking coffee, reading or even playing the guitar. Leticia (seventh grade teacher) was out of her classroom 70%, Ricardo (ninth grade teacher) was absent 40% while Rocio (eighth grade teacher) was absent 30% of the time.

Other lamentable factors accompanied this large percentage of absenteeism; half of the school days in the two month sample were canceled, union strikes being the main cause. When I asked the teachers during their interviews if participating in the union strikes was mandatory the answer was no. Then I asked them if they went to the strikes on the days they canceled school, the answer was also no. They said that instead they used it as a day to rest.

Other reasons for school closure were extraneous, take for example “school cleaning day” in which the students came to school and basically hang out until 1 pm and then clean the rooms for half and hour. A sorry excuse for a cancelled day of school.

The high percentage of teacher absenteeism combined with the ubiquitous cancellation of school days has resulted in extremely poor academic achievement levels: while the children are expected to finish six text books this year they will only finish three. As a result of an accumulation of years spent in this haphazard system my junior high students have difficulty doing simple math and cannot spell basic words in Spanish.

Students in class without teacher
During the meeting I also passed out each student’s grade with a breakdown of tests/projects, attendance, homework and attitude/effort. I also gave students detailed comments. My intention in giving out the grades during the meeting was two fold: first, I wanted to encourage parents to talk to their kids in depth about the class and their achievement and second I wanted to give the parents a copy of their children’s grades for despite their lack of participation in my English classes I am sure that the teachers will liberally change the grades to award their favorite students while slamming those less favorable. To avoid this I told the parents that if the grade their child receives does not match the grade I passed out to them there is a serious injustice being done as the majority of the teachers did not even step foot in my class and thus have no idea how the kids’ achievement levels compare.

To conclude the meeting Michel and I attempted to empower the parents so that they could begin to change the situation in the Junior High. Just like the meeting with the fourth grade moms we found that the parents were extremely concerned about the situation yet doubted their personal abilities to articulate their qualms and contest the teachers due to their lack of schooling. We provided them with a hard copy of my research results and told them not to hesitate to use my findings as well as what we discussed in the meeting to help further their cause. We ended the meeting there deciding that they could be the most effective if they organized themselves with the help of the priest and a few local educational leaders. I hope that like the fourth grade mothers they too take action, for we have seen that community members are precisely the ones who can bring about change.

While I am currently not in Mexico I will continue to update the blog with reflections and research findings.

48 Hours to Victory

After five months of suspended classes, Ziquítaro’s fourth graders finally have a teacher. The problem began during winter vacation as the fourth grade teacher was permitted to transfer schools despite the fact that the principal had not yet secured a replacement. Once school began again in January the children and their parents were shocked by the unwarranted suspension of fourth grade classes. While the principal offered to teach classes for pay – an illegal move as her job description specifically holds her responsible for teaching the classes while a replacement is found – the mothers found this request ridiculous, as their children are guaranteed a free public education, as well as unfeasible due to their economic limitations. Consequently, the principal ignored their qualms and began teaching classes to three select students who happened to be the sons and daughters of her close friends.

To correct the wrong the mothers spoke with government officials at the local education building, yet no one paid much attention to them. Then, they went to the regional educational building – still no resolve. Then they came to me. They were at a point of such utter desperateness that they asked me - a foreign English teacher - to teach their kids the fourth grade. One mother’s decision in particular personifies their desperateness: to guarantee her son’s right to basic primary education she and her son immigrated from Ziquítaro to Fort Worth, Texas in order to enroll her son in the fourth grade.

While I agreed to teach the children a few times a week, I saw their request as an urgent cry for help which could only be answered by obtaining a permanent teacher. So, Michel and I talked to the priest about what to do and came to a simple conclusion; a meeting of the fourth graders’ mothers which would be led by a local teacher who is not only extremely informed about the political processes necessary for educational change but also very dedicated to the town’s children and their education.

The meeting was a complete success. While initially the women’s lack of self confidence regarding their abilities to articulate or contest questions and dispute arguments deterred the conversation away from direct public action, with the help of the teacher they navigated the issue and decided to take political action. They planned a strike in which they would “take” the local education building day and night until the local administrative bodies came up with a solution. Their petition was simple yet powerful as it demanded a teacher as well as a few other essential changes such as the dissembling of a brick wall about to fall on the elementary school’s playground.

All the mothers – except for the three whose children were already receiving instruction – agreed. The protest began on Monday. Roughly twenty five women arrived at the local education building at 7:30 am, unpacked their sack breakfasts and began their peaceful seizure of the building, blocking any employee from entering. The protest lasted two days as all of their grievances were answered within 48 hours.

The new teacher begins this Tuesday, the 5th of May. According to the agreement made between the parents and the education office the teacher is not to participate in the two month long teacher’s union strike which plagues the local schools with a closure from May until the end of June. Instead, he is to work with the kids to bring them back up to grade level proficiency so that they can avoid repeating the fourth grade.

The actions that the forth graders’ mothers took were unusual for Ziquítaro, a town where conscious complacency is all too often the norm. Yet, I hope that this story will set an example and show the hundreds of concerned, yet voiceless, mothers and fathers of elementary and junior high students that they can positively change the trajectory of their children’s marginalized education.