Schools in Mexico during lockdown: What we can learn
As a teacher and grandparent living in Mexico, I have found the Mexican plan for the new school year to be far-reaching and worth sharing with my colleagues and friends in the States. The Board of Education in Jalisco, the state where my Guadalajara family lives and works, has initiated a plan that involves the whole family. In addition, the American School Foundation of Guadalajara is active in providing some of the services discussed here. While there will be no in-person classes until the COVID-19 transmission rate slows, there will be a variety of online class activities for students, as well as suggested projects to bring together families and micro-communities in the metropolitan area.
What impresses me most is the realization that “we are all in this together” is not just a saying in Mexico but a mandate to unite society and to take the mental, physical and emotional health of children, teachers and parents seriously, following practical guidelines to ensure that everyone is cared for.
Formal classes for students. There will be regularly scheduled classes in all subjects on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, using Zoom, Spotify and Google Classroom. Students who do not have access to a mobile device or Wi-Fi will be instructed to go to a volunteer neighbor’s driveway, or a parking lot in their own colonia or barrio, where, in the fresh air and while socially distant, they can access online classes. Using Zoom, they will be in contact with a certified teacher, learning math, science, Spanish and English. At various times during the school week, they will receive short assignments for evaluation or feedback.
Family educational television. Free television classes and documentaries will also be provided by Televisa, Mexico’s largest broadcast service. These will vary from biographies to dramatized great books and histories, for high school and middle school students, and basic education shows for primary, kinder and pre-kinder.
Afterschool projects will be offered in biology, physics, chemistry and environmental sciences. Every other week, activities will include backyard, kitchen-type experiments where the students can use household items to complete the assignments. There will also be family activities as variable as energy-saving ideas to nutritional suggestions, to the promotion of balanced meals, in addition to physical workouts and mindfulness sessions. Students will write reports on the activities they complete.
Psychological counseling, journal keeping. Periodically there will be psychological counseling, both general, about dealing with the stresses of the pandemic, as well as specific, dealing with individual students and/or parents who have special issues. All will be encouraged to keep a journal and share it periodically with the counselor.
Community outreach. Several activities are being planned, both with public and private school initiatives, to provide student music and virtual visits to old-age homes and orphanages. In addition, students in advanced classes may connect with a variety of clinics, businesses and social services to do volunteer work online.
Teacher support. All teachers will have both technical and psychological help available to work with the new platforms as well as to handle the day-to-day stresses of the new requirements. In addition, Wednesday will be a designated day for teacher planning and in-services, to provide all teachers the opportunity to share their concerns and obtain needed assistance.
Too often, especially in U.S. cities, our children have been engaged in a competitive battle for grades and admittance to colleges. Our parents are too busy supporting their families to spend much time on their child’s education. The community, unfortunately, is usually indifferent to what goes on in the schools, until delinquency spills over to the neighborhood.
The Mexican model is community-based, with everyone helping everyone else. Pockets of selfishness and competitiveness still exist, of course. That is human nature. But the focus right now is coming together as a community and helping all of our children get the support they need, while at the same time providing balance and a healthy environment for all the adults who are helping them along the way: grandparents, parents, teachers, laborers and professionals. Sharing and service is the order of the day in our colonia in Guadalajara.