Guest blogger Katie Wilczak is a former Fordham intern.?? She is now teaching teaching English at a rural municipal high school in Chile through a program launched in 2003 by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the United Nations Development Programme called English Opens Doors . These are her observations and experiences during her first few months teaching in Molina, Chile .
To begin, Chile is a developing country and lags a few years behind the United States in most respects but is committed to advancing its education system and has shown great potential in recent years. English was not a priority of the Chilean education system until a few years ago and consequently, most of my students could barely understand the question ???How are you???? on our first day of class. Interest in American culture is high (the students are especially obsessed with the death of Michael Jackson) and almost all of my students have shown great motivation to improve their skills regardless of the challenges. In this respect, I have been very lucky and the students have made great progress.
The Chilean school day is long, with nine class periods every day that last from 8am until 5pm. In contrast to most high schools in the United States, students here remain in the same classroom with the same classmates the entire day while the teachers move from room to room each class period. The schedule of classes is different every day and there is usually only one teacher who teaches each subject (i.e. math) to the entire school at all different grade levels and subject levels. Teachers rarely plan in advance, probably because they have so many students and so many classes to keep up with, and therefore the majority of the class hour passes in disorder. In addition, the students are extremely bored and pent up staying in one classroom all day long and therefore very rowdy. Unfortunately, the administration is also disorganized, confused, and inefficient. For example, there are intense "discussions" nearly every week during faculty meetings concerning which days will and will not have classes the following week. It's not unusual to show up to school or to a class to discover that the class has been canceled for some obscure reason or that the students have simply chosen not to show up.
The municipal school where I teach is poor and caters to rural students who do no plan to go to university. During the end of their second year in media (high school) students choose one of five career tracks to pursue. They include: secretaria (secretary), alimentacion (food service), laboratoria chemica (chem lab), contabilidad (finance) and atencion a adulto mayor (care of the eldery). Upon graduation, students receive a titulo and should (theoretically) be able to obtain a job in their field without a college degree. Due to the varying course combinations of each career, classes are different each day and English has been mostly relegated to a few short hours one day per week.
The school facilities are basic and there is no heat, few supplies, a few old books, no computers, and oftentimes no hot water. Sports, extracurricular activities, and music or art classes are non-existent. I attempted to start an after-school club to watch movies in English (the nearest movie theater is an hour and a half away) but I was told by the principal that students will not stay after school to learn. His suggested solution is to pull kids out of other classes to participate but I'm not a huge fan of pulling kids from legitimate classes to watch foreign language films. I've been working for a few weeks to convince students to stay after-school and this week we will finally have our first activity!
Students here in Chile have a lot of power over school administration; strikes by both students and teachers are frequent. We currently have classes every Saturday in an effort to recuperate a few weeks' worth of classes that were missed earlier this year when the teachers protested for a pay increase. While we're recuperating missed class time, a neighboring school is experiencing a student strike in which students are demanding an improved learning environment and physical structure for their school. Every child in Chile has the right to a basic education at a municipal school and the students do receive many benefits from the state. Every student receives free breakfast and lunch at school and all of those students who live too far from the school to afford to travel there--logistically and/or financially--every day receive government-paid housing with host families in the neighborhood. Although I've found that the standards of education are lower than those in the United States, the government is very good about ensuring that each student receives what they deserve.
This experience has surely opened my eyes to the great contrasts in national education systems and in general, the huge cultural differences throughout the world. I feel blessed for the experience and hope that I'm able to impact the lives of my students, even if I'm only remembered as the fun gringa who forced the students to finally learn the numbers and alphabet in English.