Thursday, November 6, 2008
Jardin Infantil in Argentina
We went to music class at a Jardin Infantil, a sort of pre-school for children from age two until five. One year of pre-Kinder is required in Argentina.
Okay Mom, here are some pictures
The lil' piggies (cerditos in Spanish) on their first day out walking around.
Baby Piggie, one of the two black ones.
Six year old Fabian, a cousin of sorts or perhaps a nephew, swinging in the front yard. He and I were goalie the night we played baby-futbol (soccer on a small court) at nine pm under the full moon.
A thrid grader and five year old Hairo help tickle four year old Diego in the grass at the gathering for all the families before we said goodbye.
A Spectacular view from our outdoor classroom. The lesson was on Mapuche Philosophy before Christians came.
These are baby chickies: Pollitos in Spanish. They run around all over the place on the farm and follow their mom everywhere.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Fiestas Patrias: A few stories
So my family went to “el campo” the country for the four day weekend. It was BEAUTIFUL and I finally got to go running. I also picked up a good number of rocks from the river while I was there. We ate tons of empanadas, I played with kids (even two one and a half year old twin boys!), slept late and went to bed later and generally didn’t do the homework I had to do.
Funny story one. I came back from a run one day and needed a shower. As I was showering I noticed this thing by the drain, first I thought it was a dead mouse and almost freaked because one thing you do have to be careful of is the Hanta Virus from dead mice. It wasn’t a dead mouse, I decided, it looked more like a leaf, okay a leaf, I could deal with that. I finished my shower, got out and was drying off when the leave crawled across the shower floor….not a leaf a pretty big lizard minus the tail!!!! It’d been under the water the whole time and so hadn’t moved. YIKES. Made my family laugh a lot.
Private Schools: solution or the devil?
Really neither, private schools aren’t at fault for being what they are, the fact that they exist however is a problem and it all began because parents can choose what school their child goes to.
Parens are given the options of picking their child’s school because it is seen as their right to pick the best school for their child. (For now let’s assume that everyone has the opportunity to pick where their child goes to school) So what school’s would a parent pick? Most likely a parent will choose the most qualified school in the area, with good resources, teachers, a safe environment, small class size, everything that helps make a school a “good” school. This makes a lot of sense, of course parent’s would want their child in the best school possible and initially this seems like a good idea. Except:
Problem 1: What are the options?
US: Private School, Public School, Charter/Voucher School
Chile: Escuela municipal (pública), escuela subvencionada, escuela privada
The best schools have the best resources, the best teachers, the best building, which means the school needs money. For a large part public schools don’t have enough money, and private schools do. So those who can choose go to private school for a better education. (We can argue what a “better” education is later).
Problem 2: Can everyone choose?
No. In the
These two things together mean that the families with the most resources are going to private schools; the families with the least resources are going to public schools. This hurts the public schools a lot because there is much less outside support. In
The biggest problem teachers say they have is discipline, there is none. And really it’s no one’s fault entirely, the kids are out of control but they also have no role models for how one should act in school. “They kids are a challenge, they tough kids to work with.” said a teacher at a school I visited yesterday. “Everyday is a challenge,…by law there can be no more than 45 students in a classroom, but even 30 is far to many.”
And how does this hurt the private schools? There’s no diversity. The better education is monocultural, no socio-economic diversity, backgrounds are essentially exactly the same. Learning ability and performance are also much closer to the same, private schools are missing what could enhance their program immensely only it’s not really their fault. Private schools can’t function without tuition, that’s the way they work.
So really the question is: If the public schools were better, would we need the private schools as much? If parents could send their child to public school and get a good education, would as many students with money be going to private school? And if parents with time and money and power sent their kids to public schools would the public schools gain a voice?
All in all, if parents couldn’t choose where their child went to school the public schools would have to get better.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Education Seminar Sept 15
September 15, 2008
A list of questions that I don’t have answers to but would like to and some thoughts on them.
Apologies if some things are translated weird in English…I’m not always sure what the right term is.
Overview of todays seminar:
1981 Chilean schools were reformed (this is just after Pinochet stopped being president, but installed the main education law). “modernization” –Educational market
-parents pick which school their children will attend
-municipalitizacion (municipilización)
- Schools compete to get more students because they’ll receive more funding with more students (failing schools lose students and then cease to exist)
1990-2005
active state to counterbalance the bad affects of the market system.
talk about quality of education
need better conditions in schools.
2006
Protests by the pengüinos (students).
Complaint: lots of promises that have never come through, there is much inequality in the schools
Demand: equality.
Movement had full support of the citizenship of Chile
-Sticky spots include that education is better than it ever has been, but students know they have reach would they could and the quality has not reached what it needs to.
¿Es mala la educación chilena? (Is chilean education bad?)
Chilean education in comparison:
In comparison with past Chilean education—better, advanced
In comparison with the rest of Latin America—better
In comparison with OECDs (basically they’re like developed rich countries, it’s something to do with economics that I don’t quite get)—worse
In terms of segregation and equality—BAD
Societal inequality and segmentation -------------->
<---------------- Educational inequality and segmentation
(it´s a cycle...so goal, make education a little better than society and society improves)
The rich in chile have 32 times what the poor have.
Gini (measure of inequality and achievement in life, higher is worse 0-70? for inequality)
inequality achievement (0-800?)
Chile – 58 300
USA – 40 500
In the world Chile was bad in both, US was middle ish in inequality and upper third in achievement. Generally the two things correlated higher achievement less inequality.
Conclusions: In Chile tests showed that the more time spent in school the more inequality there was between the schools. This is unusual because normally the longer you’ve been in school the less your home life and economic status affects your schooling. It’s more likely that they stay the same or better a little.
Three types of schools:
Public – completely free and open to everyone (50% attend here)
Subvencionadas (like voucher schools) – subsidizes by the government but the parents pay too, open to most that can pay sometimes there are tests to enter. (30% here)
Private – fully paid by parents and the school can select it’s students. (less than 10%)
The majority of the lower class attends public schools
The majority of the middle class attends escuelas subvencionadas
The majority of the upper class attends private schools
Conclusion: Class/socio-economic status directly affects test performance/learning.
The number of rich students for every poor student in a private school:
Chile – 19
Latin America – 10
OECDs – 5.4
Consequences of homogenous classes and schools because of class segregacion and in this case achievement segregation:
1. Doesn’t produce a civic democratic education
2. Because all students are at the same level there’s no partnership between students to help each other lean. In a heterogeneous school the better, ahead students would help the behind students.
3. Expectations of teachers/families often become the result, this is a problem in a school where all the students are vulnerable (word meaning some combination of poor, unstable home, uneducated background, etc.) and the teachers and families have very low expectations.
4. No one making decisions really knows what it’s like in the public schools (which are of the worst quality). People with money don’t send their kids to public school. Therefore municipal schools (public schools) don’t have a voice.
Questions of the day (not answered in my thoughts cause it’s late, I did put in the notes I took from the presentator’s answers today)
1. What are the needs of students before a teacher can begin to start “teaching”? Can you fulfill these needs and teach at the same time?
2. What is the connection and relationship between education/ability to learn and self confidence?
3. La responsabilidad de la escuela es educar sus alumnos y no ser padres, ¿pero dónde está la línea entre estas responsabilidades y si de realidad hay una línea, puede cruzarlo?
(The responsibility of a school is to teach its students and is not to be parents, but where is the line between these responsibilities and if there actually is a line, can you cross it?)
- there is a line but it’s dotted and nebulous. Different students need different things, it depends where a teacher is teaching. Argentina and others have done studies on what can be expected of families in terms of support of their student. Poorer families clearly cannot give the same support as rich families and the school and teachers have to compensate for that.
4. Does a teacher have the right to teach what they want to? Should there be a set curriculum? If so how do you create one, and who creates it?
5. ¿Como enseñar a los estudiantes que necesitan mucho ayuda y apoyo juntos con los que no necesitan tanto? ¿Estudiantes ricos y pobres juntos?
(How do you teach the students who need a lot of help and support, together with the students who don’t need as much? Poor students with rich?)
6. Are class and diversity the same? If not should we continue to consider them the same?
-No, however in Chile class and race are essentially the same.
7. Homogeneous classrooms hurt poor and failing students, but do they hurt successful rich students as well? Corollary: Public schools lose because of the private schools, do private schools lose?
(¿qué son las desventajas de escuelas homogéneos cuando es una escuela privada con estudiantes ricas?)
- Because there is no difference in background between these students they don’t lose academic education but they do lose civic education. They don’t have the opportunity to help those that are struggling, this opportunity often makes and helps facilitate highly intelligent people.
A list of questions that I don’t have answers to but would like to and some thoughts on them.
Apologies if some things are translated weird in English…I’m not always sure what the right term is.
Overview of todays seminar:
1981 Chilean schools were reformed (this is just after Pinochet stopped being president, but installed the main education law). “modernization” –Educational market
-parents pick which school their children will attend
-municipalitizacion (municipilización)
- Schools compete to get more students because they’ll receive more funding with more students (failing schools lose students and then cease to exist)
1990-2005
active state to counterbalance the bad affects of the market system.
talk about quality of education
need better conditions in schools.
2006
Protests by the pengüinos (students).
Complaint: lots of promises that have never come through, there is much inequality in the schools
Demand: equality.
Movement had full support of the citizenship of Chile
-Sticky spots include that education is better than it ever has been, but students know they have reach would they could and the quality has not reached what it needs to.
¿Es mala la educación chilena? (Is chilean education bad?)
Chilean education in comparison:
In comparison with past Chilean education—better, advanced
In comparison with the rest of Latin America—better
In comparison with OECDs (basically they’re like developed rich countries, it’s something to do with economics that I don’t quite get)—worse
In terms of segregation and equality—BAD
Societal inequality and segmentation -------------->
<---------------- Educational inequality and segmentation
(it´s a cycle...so goal, make education a little better than society and society improves)
The rich in chile have 32 times what the poor have.
Gini (measure of inequality and achievement in life, higher is worse 0-70? for inequality)
inequality achievement (0-800?)
Chile – 58 300
USA – 40 500
In the world Chile was bad in both, US was middle ish in inequality and upper third in achievement. Generally the two things correlated higher achievement less inequality.
Conclusions: In Chile tests showed that the more time spent in school the more inequality there was between the schools. This is unusual because normally the longer you’ve been in school the less your home life and economic status affects your schooling. It’s more likely that they stay the same or better a little.
Three types of schools:
Public – completely free and open to everyone (50% attend here)
Subvencionadas (like voucher schools) – subsidizes by the government but the parents pay too, open to most that can pay sometimes there are tests to enter. (30% here)
Private – fully paid by parents and the school can select it’s students. (less than 10%)
The majority of the lower class attends public schools
The majority of the middle class attends escuelas subvencionadas
The majority of the upper class attends private schools
Conclusion: Class/socio-economic status directly affects test performance/learning.
The number of rich students for every poor student in a private school:
Chile – 19
Latin America – 10
OECDs – 5.4
Consequences of homogenous classes and schools because of class segregacion and in this case achievement segregation:
1. Doesn’t produce a civic democratic education
2. Because all students are at the same level there’s no partnership between students to help each other lean. In a heterogeneous school the better, ahead students would help the behind students.
3. Expectations of teachers/families often become the result, this is a problem in a school where all the students are vulnerable (word meaning some combination of poor, unstable home, uneducated background, etc.) and the teachers and families have very low expectations.
4. No one making decisions really knows what it’s like in the public schools (which are of the worst quality). People with money don’t send their kids to public school. Therefore municipal schools (public schools) don’t have a voice.
Questions of the day (not answered in my thoughts cause it’s late, I did put in the notes I took from the presentator’s answers today)
1. What are the needs of students before a teacher can begin to start “teaching”? Can you fulfill these needs and teach at the same time?
2. What is the connection and relationship between education/ability to learn and self confidence?
3. La responsabilidad de la escuela es educar sus alumnos y no ser padres, ¿pero dónde está la línea entre estas responsabilidades y si de realidad hay una línea, puede cruzarlo?
(The responsibility of a school is to teach its students and is not to be parents, but where is the line between these responsibilities and if there actually is a line, can you cross it?)
- there is a line but it’s dotted and nebulous. Different students need different things, it depends where a teacher is teaching. Argentina and others have done studies on what can be expected of families in terms of support of their student. Poorer families clearly cannot give the same support as rich families and the school and teachers have to compensate for that.
4. Does a teacher have the right to teach what they want to? Should there be a set curriculum? If so how do you create one, and who creates it?
5. ¿Como enseñar a los estudiantes que necesitan mucho ayuda y apoyo juntos con los que no necesitan tanto? ¿Estudiantes ricos y pobres juntos?
(How do you teach the students who need a lot of help and support, together with the students who don’t need as much? Poor students with rich?)
6. Are class and diversity the same? If not should we continue to consider them the same?
-No, however in Chile class and race are essentially the same.
7. Homogeneous classrooms hurt poor and failing students, but do they hurt successful rich students as well? Corollary: Public schools lose because of the private schools, do private schools lose?
(¿qué son las desventajas de escuelas homogéneos cuando es una escuela privada con estudiantes ricas?)
- Because there is no difference in background between these students they don’t lose academic education but they do lose civic education. They don’t have the opportunity to help those that are struggling, this opportunity often makes and helps facilitate highly intelligent people.
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