Day of the Dead

"All of the students pass in the end" Profe Hector explained, after being bombarded with my relentless questions. I have students that rarely attend class and others that come but do nothing. We have long, elaborate sessions where we have to re-test students at the end of each semester. I still do not know how they will pass. Tests are only 30% of their grade, how will they do the rest of the work that they missed? Is it fair to pass kids that missed the majority of the class and attended a few shotgun sessions at the end? Is it okay to pass a student that hasn't acquired any proficiency in English because he didn't bother coming to class or do any work? "If you don't pass them, they will pay 500 pesos and another teacher will sign that they passed" the profe told me. "It's all about the money. That's Mexico for you. I shouldn't say that, because I am Mexican, but that's Mexico".

I am torn. Do I dig my heels in and work these kids to death at the end of the semester to justify passing them or just hand them the grade to save all of us a lot of hard work? At times my job feels like high paid babysitting. Do I have a problem with that? The students are happiest when I give them long, simple, open ended assignments. We cut pictures from magazines of their vocabulary words and glue them on paper. Those are easy days. I could get away with not teaching them, take my paycheck and pass them along. But it just seems wrong.

I work in a tech school. There are agriculture schools here in Mexico as well and I often wish I worked in one. They learn to farm and go on field trips where they pet animals. The students have to major in something. I find the majors depressing at my school. Their choices are production, electronics or the self explanatory software program. I later learned that production is basically how to work in a factory. Electronics students build various electronic devices, motors, speakers, etc. The new software program seems the most ambitious. Electives do not exist. In the U.S., students are encouraged to explore things, take an art class, creative writing, at least gym. That mentality does not exist here. I understand, they need training, skills, a path to a job. The factory program seems to attract the brightest students, whereas electronics appears to be a dumping ground for low performers. Software is still a wild card. The students never talk of their majors. They do the work, but show no enthusiasm for their course of study. When I see my goofy students, all with varied interests and personalities I find it hard to imagine them working in maquiladoras. Actually, I find it sad.

My family came to visit me last weekend, during our long Day of the Dead holiday. We had a great time but I had a little trouble getting them back to the border on time after I accidently got in the line to cross the border in a car. People sometimes wait eight hours at San Ysidro. We did some Evil Knievel stuff to get out of there and got them to the walk across line. A couple of mysterious taxi drivers offered to get them across fast for five bucks and they hopped in their van. I stared at the van as I quickly walked across the bridge back to heart of TJ. I could see my niece's pink polka dotted suitcase sitting on top of the van for a while. It was hard to stop looking at it.

The prefecta entered my room on Tuesday at 2:45 to tell me that we had a four hour course we had to attend at 3:00. No more class for the rest of the day after a four day holiday and exams beginning next week. It was a constructivism workshop. It was explained to us that we needed to make tests that evaluated the skills we had taught throughout the unit. If we talk of high expectations and provide complex activities throughout the unit, only to give a simple test at the end, the students will realize that they can get away with a minimum level of performance. I couldn't agree more. If we provide rigorous lessons and give tests that reflect our high expectations and the students realize that no one ever fails the class, no matter how often they attended or how little work they do, they will lower to that expectation and do nothing.

Apparently teenage pregnancy is an issue in Mexico. I've had my share of pregnant students in the U.S. as well. In order to discourage the students from having children at a young age, a science teacher is making the students carry dolls around for two weeks. It is supposed to be inconvenient and reinforce that teenagers aren't ready to raise babies. The kids love the assignment. As the days pass, the students are carrying increasingly elaborate baby props to school. Baby blankets, little cribs and intricate, back pack style baby carriers. A few of my students have proudly shown me their cholo babies, decked out in gangster clothes. We have these assignments in the U.S. as well. My brother had to carry a potato around for a week and arrange for babysitters when he couldn't be with his "child". The kids at my U.S. school had to carry around hard boiled eggs with plastic eyes. In one of my classes, a student ate another kid's "baby". I was expecting to see students carrying dolls by one leg and throwing their "child" on the ground when it became inconvenient. But they don't. They cradle these dolls, cooing and patting them during class. Student couples walk leisurely through the courtyard, carrying their "children". I even saw my dreaded electronics students on my way to school, hiking up the hill, all five boys carefully carrying their dolls. I was almost relieved when one of my software students called "Hey profe!" during class, twisted his doll's head around backwards and yelled "Exorcista!"