Developement

There are some obvious differences between school in Mexico, and school in the U.S.:

- Teachers change classrooms, you don´t.
- Class schedules are different every day
- Uniforms
- Sports and Clubs are private, not associated with the school
- Students buy their own books
- Classrooms are bare (they don´t belong to any ONE teacher)

There are MANY other things that make Mexican schools different than those in the U.S., but these seem to be the main ones. And you could find that out with Google. I hope, with this post, to explain some differences that go a little bit deeper than what book is open in front of me, and for how long.

DISCLAIMER: I am going to a very nice, private school here in Mexico. It´s actually the prep program on the campus of a very nice, private college. What I experience here is probably very different than the typical Mexican Public High School…



I´m a ¨senior¨ here. Kids go to high school for three years, not four, so when they asked me what semester I was going into and I said my fifth, I got put into the oldest class (17-18). Thus began my Mexican High School experience.

The first big difference that registered for me is that kids, by this age, have a PLAN. Not like ¨I like writing and I kind of like chemistry, and I´m going to go to college, and then probably grad school, and then hopefully a job.¨ which is the general template for U.S. high school plans. By the time they enter fifth semester, these students have been sorted into one of four groups: Biology/Chemistry, Physics/Mathematics, Economics, or Social Studies/Humanities by a series of tests, teacher recommendations, and family/personal preference.

This is not really a decision that is taken lightly. I chose the latter group, because I like those classes best, and am now surrounded by aspiring Psychologists. And not ¨I like taking Psychology classes¨ more like ¨I am going to be a Psychologist¨. I soon realized that ¨I like these classes best¨ was not a strong enough reason to choose this group. When people asked me what I am interested in, and I said Ecology (first interest that popped into my head) people were shocked. If I was going to be an Ecologist, what could possibly be keeping me from the Biology/Chemistry group????? Now I say ¨International Relations¨. It´s kind of true, and as people try to think if that’s actually a job, I have time to change the subject. (Is that actually a job?)

It´s fascinating to see kids who are legitimately thinking about how they want to join the workforce. No one ever says ¨What college are you looking at?¨ They say ¨What job will you have?¨ Back home, my friends and I haven´t been able to see much farther than choosing a school and paying for it. Every activity is for the purpose of getting IN to college, but what comes after? I guess that´s for worrying about in college….

The classes here are grouped in interesting ways. There are the typical classes associated with ¨word people¨. Our math class is Prob/Stats, our Science class is Biology. We have Sociology, Psychology, History, Health, English (For me Spanish Lit.), Derecho (it doesn´t really translate but is like a Government/Law class) and the ¨Desarrollo¨classes. Desarrollo means development. These ambiguously named classes are snuck into our schedule on a daily basis. I still don´t really understand them. We have Skills Development, which is entirely different than Abilities Development, and completely independent from Humanity Development. From a week or so of classes, I gather that ¨skills¨ is actually an art/culture appreciation class, we are developing our ¨ability¨ to solve logic puzzles, and ¨humanity¨ development involves us coming up with plans…to solve the problems of humanity. We should be able to tackle that one at least….

I always giggle when I think about our P.E. class, called: ¨Physical Motor Skills Development¨. Doesn´t that sound like it belongs in some sort of high end pre-school?

Anyway, I am realizing how much of my identity as a student in the U.S. was tied up in me getting good grades. I know a lot of exchange students instantly embrace the whole: ¨Not-getting-grades-or-being-held-to-an-academic-standard-at-all¨thing, but it is HARD for me to let go of something that was so big in my life! I try to do the homework, but I am really bad at figuring out what things are ¨Important¨ as assignments, and what things aren´t. EX: Last night I spent over an hour researching definitions for Sociology, and today’s class period was the teacher, writing the definitions on the board. I chose to skip homework for Psychology, which was collected at the beginning of class. I don´t really know what´s going on.

I´ve been here for two weeks today. My ears are finally getting warmed up, so that when people talk, I can hear individual words and look them up. This is good, but also frustrating, because I can understand what the teachers are saying. I can´t feign complete ignorance, I really do understand most of the questions, I´m just not able to give a coherent response. Because of this, my history teacher thinks I don´t know any causes for WWI, my Psychology teacher believes I can´t come up with a definition for ¨thinking¨, and perhaps most comically, my Health teacher believes I am unfamiliar with what a menstrual cycle is. I have to choose to laugh, everyone will just be surprised when I talk, right?

Lastly, It´s really trippy to be in all of these humanities classes in another country. Every country has mistakes in its past, right? Yes. And when you study YOUR country´s mistakes, in YOUR country, everyone can sort of agree: ¨Wow, that sucked¨ and move on. It´s really different to study your country´s mistakes in ANOTHER country. Yesterday, in History class, we watched a really graphic slideshow of victims from Hiroshima, and I sat there, with guilt absolutely washing over me, before I remembered that I was not in any way personally responsible for the bombing. Displacing the Native Americans. The whole ¨Manifest Destiny concept. And of course, TAKING LAND FROM MEXICO. I haven´t actually done these things, but as we study them, I feel absolutely horrible.

Sometimes teachers like to call on me to get the American opinion on these issues. Today, in my Mexican history class, I was called to give my opinion on the land wars between the U.S: and Mexico, historically. I thought of all the times I had discussed this with my friends and classmates in English. I remembered how indignant I felt about the issue. I tried to think of how upset it made me. But the truth is, my Spanish just isn´t good enough to truly express my opinions. I can´t say what I want to.

Hopefully, one day in the future, I will be able to look back and laugh at that time when I walked slowly to the front of the classroom, stared resolutely at my shoes and began: ¨I believe… pause….that when the U.S. took land from Mexico…pause….it was a very…pause….bad thing…¨