Different Concept of Education

Courtyard of the art building where all of my poetry classes are. Notice the murals- the whole city is covered in murals.

A weeek ago I began a volunteership at the Colegio Presbetariano in Valpara"so, Chile. It interests me a lot as an education student because I see things I`ve never seen in the school system back home. A couple of things that popped out at me yesterday:

1. Posters in the entry way buletin board made by the students about "what are my rights, how things were before, not to abuse the rights of others," and most importantly "how to protect my rights."

In school back in America we talked about rights, but rebelion was always strongly frowned upon. If I thought my rights were being infringed upon and protested, I was always shot down by all the school officials. Here,they are encouraged to explore all the ways they can excercise and protect their rights. Sure, we always talked about the constitution , but never rights in practice or how to protect them. In fact, my high school US history teacher completely skipped over the chapters about the civil rights revolution of the sixties and I got thrown out of class when I questioned him for that.

2. A student was crying pasionately in the hall. The teacher found out why she was crying, then let her go home. After dealing with the student, the teacher explained to the whole class what happened. She was crying because of a mixture of the other kids making fun of her (probably just for "fun"), her dificulties at home that she just let well up inside her and finally collapsed. Then the teacher spent a good twenty minutes of class on an open discussion of what happened, how it was everyones fault for letting it happen, and let everyone voice their opinion. She made it clear that everyone knew what happened, why it was wrong, that this girl is an imporant and valuable member of the group, and they all agreed never to let it happen again and talked about how to support her through her hard time.

The sittuation would have occured entirely different back in the US. I can picture myself at that age, overly sensitive because of what was happening outside of school and even little "jokes" could have set me over like she did yesterday. But instead, I would have cried in the bathroom, gotten in trouble for being late for class, and the teacher would MAYBE discuss my problem with me in private and single out an agressor. I would have come to class late with red eyes, no one would have known the problem, and I would probably get picked on again over the same thing becuase the problem had never been adressed openly.

This avoidance of adressing problems straightforwardly as they occur is surely why US schools have such a big problem with bullying; because its not dealt with as a societal problem, but as an individual's problem. The teacher today made everyone guilty, adressed everyone involved, and I am SURE by the sadness they all expresed for what they had unintentionally and unknowingly done to their classmate that it will not happen again.

3. Class of 24 students stay together 12 years in the same school building, know the same teachers over the years, and they all wear the same uniform so they are comfortable in their surroundings and with the people. Im pretty sure all schools in Chile are small like this, or at least a majority. For this reason they were ennabled to have the talk in point 2 effectively and passionately because their class is a caring community as opposed to the cut-throat social scene i experienced in my US shcool. Kids can be mean, but its so much easier to be mean to someone you do not know and do not have to be around much. These kids are like an extended family in a classroom.

In my school experience, there were 300 students in my grade, different class compositions every period, different teacher every hour and semester. Always in an uncomfortable stage of never knowing anyone, always trying to make an impression to make new friends (partially the fault of the military always moving students -every friend i ever had- in and out of MHHS, but I imagine in a huge school thats still gonna happen anyway). Teachers would never spend class time adressing everyone over a single students personal problems, only single out individuals, even if it was, like bullying, a societal problem.

I never had that same sense of bonding, belonging, community or self worth in my high school as these students get at their school.

4. During class, 3 students were quietly playing the guitar, even while the teacher was talking, but the teacher didnt say anything about it untill one of them started playing distastefully.

I love how the arts are intergrated and supported in the Chilean educational system and society. In the US, a student would probably not even be allowed to bring a guitar to school at all without special permission because its not a band instrument, and even band instruments had to be kept in lockers at all times of the day but band class.

I have observed so far that the students do not get as much book or busy work done, but there are al ot of things to learn from the Chilean education system. I also feel like the environment created within the Chilean school is so much better than the environment in my high school. I HATED my school experience for the aformentioned reasons. The small class sizes, life long relationships, open and relaxed classroom structure, and school uniforms sure beat my 300 student class, not really knowing anyone, strict and closed structure, and social classes with judgements based on clothing.