I have officially completed my first week of teaching and I can’t help but notice drastic differences in the way school is run in Mentrida and the way schools are run in the U.S.
The School Day
A typical school day is only five hours. It’s not 8 hours like the schools in the states. Every day school begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. In the mornings, children come to school somewhere between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m. (most of them later than earlier). Once the children arrive, they go straight to class.
Breakfast is not served before school like it is in the states. Most (if not all) of the children are feed at home before they arrive. It is typical that at least one parent (usually mothers but also some fathers) does not work during the day in this town and therefore, children eat breakfast at home. Pillar (my host mother) told me that they tried last year to give the children breakfast at school but since most of the children did not come, they stopped doing it. Once the children arrive at the school, the lessons begin. What is taught on that day depends on the day of the week and each teacher’s schedule.
Around noon, all of the classes take a break for “almuerzo” and recess. Almuerzo, loosely translated, means lunch but it’s nothing like the lunches we have in American primary schools. Almuerzo is more like a snack children have during recess. Each child is responsible for bringing its own snack. From what I’ve seen, this can range from a sandwich and a soda to a piece of fruit and a yogurt smoothie. After each child finishes their snack, they are free to play for an hour.
What a sight it is to watch the children scarf down their snack and then rush off to the playground. Once they are on the playground, all bets are off. On my first day of almuerzo, I almost had a heart attack! The kids were running around, screaming, jumping up and down and in all, acting like crazy people. It was pure chaos. At one point, a group of kids were running in (literal) circles around me and I felt like I was in a propaganda video for corporal punishment.
You have to understand my distress. This is unheard of in the states. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a child play at their school let alone run around screaming while the teachers stand and watch from a far. Oh that’s another thing I had never seen before: All the adults were so calm and I, at every second, wanted to rush out and say no, stop that, don’t do that. They just stood their ground and only intervened in truly dangerous situations. I thought they were crazy! Then, I realized why the teachers were so calm. Once we returned to class, the children were calm and ready to work. It was as if they had released all their demons and were ready to be normal children again. I am now all for the hour craziness if it means that we have four hours of peace with the children.
After almuerzo, the students return to class for about two hours before leaving to go home. This is my favorite part of the day. Every day, around 1:30 I take my place at the window to watch the children leave. Yes I am happy to see the children leave, but not for the reasons you may think.
The majority of children are picked up by their parents at this time. Can I tell you how beautiful this is? In the afternoon, the “parent pickup children” are lined up in front of the gates and then the magic happens. Once their name is called, each child rush into their parents’ arms as the parents kiss them and swing them around while both child and parent smile from ear to ear and laughter fills the air. I am not over exaggerating when I say that EVERY child who is picked up by their parent does this. Can you believe it? When I first saw it, I thought to myself, no this has to be staged. But I was wrong. Every day the same thing has happened. I have never in my life seen so many happy children at once. Every time I see this, I wish there was a way I could bottle this up and spread all around the schools in my neighborhood back home. Usually in the states when school ends, you see children rushing off to get on buses or hop into cars. You rarely see little one’s rushing to hug and kiss their parents. This had always been so normal to me but after seeing the alternative it no longer seems right.
The rest of the children are split into two groups: Those in the after school program and those who ride the bus home. The children who are in the after school program are taken to the cafeteria where they eat what we would consider “lunch” for about two hours. Now I put lunch in quotes because, once again, this is nothing like the lunches our kids get in the U.S. No, they don’t eat stale pizza and hamburgers. These kids get a home cooked, three course meal. Lunch for the students typically includes soup or salad, a main course and dessert. Last Thursday, the children had a vegetable puree soup with drumsticks, salad, French bread, yogurt and a piece of fruit. How yummy! Jamie Oliver would be proud. After “lunch” they play on the play ground until they are picked up.
The last group of children ride the bus home. There is only one bus for these children but it’s not the big yellow buses that we are used to in the states. These children are picked up in a big, fancy charter bus that the parents pay $10 a month for them to ride, which can be pretty expensive if you have more than one child.
The School
This school is massive. There are four, two-story buildings as well as an annex and portables that house the children. Can you believe that they still don’t have enough space? In retrospect, I would guess that it would be the same size as a large, public elementary school in the states but this isn’t a big city. Mentrida has approximately 4,001 people in it (I’m the one, LOL).
The reason why this school is so big is that it houses a lot of grades (and children). In Spain, primary school is from ages 2 1/2-12. This translates to grades Pre-school to 6th in the states. I don’t know exactly how many kids there are in the school but I know that there are a lot and I have the pleasure of working with ALL of them since I am the only conversation teacher in my town. Yes, I have the task of learning about 500 names (including the staff) over the next year. And yes, I have to learn (and remember) each Lucia, David, Raquel, Emma and Jose because their little hearts break when I don’t remember them. (Trust me; it’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds.)
The Staff
The staff is much more laid back in Spanish public schools. Everyone is known by their first name. The children don’t call us Ms. or Mr. Surname. Even the principle is known by his first name.
On my first day, I tried to have all the kids call me by my last name (which would be normal in the states) and all of the teacher’s looked at me like I was crazy and introduced me as Mitzi to their classrooms. Now, the little one’s call me teacher but the older one’s call me Mitzi.
Most of the teachers are in their early 20’s and 30’s. The majority of the support staff (i.e. the administration, the cleaning crew, etc.) is older. Some of the Americans that I met during training informed me that it was normal for the teachers to be younger in the smaller towns. Most often smaller towns have a deficit of teachers and therefore the universities send teachers who aren’t certified yet out to smaller towns to do their student teaching.
There are approximately 3 primary teachers in every grade (a total of 27 teachers), 8 language teachers who float from class to class reinforcing that day’s lesson in a foreign language (usually English), 2 (or 3) infant assistants, 2(or 3) special education tutors and 2 P.E. coaches who teach P.E. as well as relieve the primary teachers during breaks.
There is one more thing that I would like to point out: Unlike American public schools, the teachers do not have dress codes. My first day in Mentrida, the principle came and picked me up from the airport in jeans and a polo shirt. I thought he hadn’t gone to school that day and didn’t think twice about it. While we were having lunch I asked him what should I wear to the school and he said whatever you want. What I’m wearing today is my usual (jeans, a collar shirt and dress shoes) but you can wear what you want. Silly me, I packed all of my business casual outfits thinking we had to dress up. I would like to be clear about something, though, even though the teacher’s are casual, they are VERY fashion forward. Most of them are young, 20 something women and therefore they follow the trends. I was laughing to myself the other day because when I walked into the teacher’s lounge looked like a foot shoot for vogue. I love it! Now I dress laid back but I make sure to be as fashionable as possible. The only thing that surprised me more than this was the P.E. teachers.
The one thing I did find to be hilarious is that out of all the differences I found, one thing remained the same: The P.E. teachers. Even though the homeroom and language teachers dress differently than home room teacher’s in the states, the P.E. teachers looked exactly the same as the one’s we have in the U.S. They totally rock the Sue Sylvester. The two P.E. teachers we have on campus wear wind pants, a tee-shirt, tennis shoes and their whistle every day. I guess some things are universal after all.
Well that’s all of my observations so far. I will be sure to keep you all posted on anything else I learn while at work.
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