Education Today
By James T. Olsen and Anne Olsen

Picking a school in SMA: Some considerations

Atención did the best survey of public and private elementary and secondary schools in San Miguel in its August 18–25, 2006 issue (pp.1–6) called School Daze by Tania Noriz and Jesús Ibarra. It’s in both English and Spanish and provides objective, descriptive data on what’s available to parents and kids. For childcare and early education information you can also see Atención’s October 20–27, 2006 edition in an article written by Tania Noriz, “Childcare and Early Education in San Miguel” (pp. 1–6). The purpose of this article is to suggest some of the issues the expatriate parent may want to address in the school search process. In no way is it a critique.

Many schools will label themselves one way or another such as following the XYZ method or philosophy of a person or a movement. That’s fine but you will want to ask— “How many of your teachers have been actually certified and licensed in XYZ?” You may discover that few of the teachers have such licenses despite the label. To teach in San Miguel, a foreigner or a local (who actually needs fewer credentials) is only required to have a college degree without prior teaching experience or professional certification. (In the US today, almost all teachers have master’s degrees and a teaching license earned over a three-year work/trial period where he or she is tested, observed and evaluated.) 

Teacher’s pay here is low and the residential rents high. US$400 to US$500 per month pay for a teacher is normal, so in any given school the teacher turnover is high. That means that these particular schools lack staff continuity and don’t hold on to their best teachers, who usually move on after a year or two or.

Almost all private schools lack the kind of funding they need to implement fundamental remedial instruction and supplementary and enrichment programs. Kids with learning disabilities often go undiagnosed or if diagnosed, untreated because of the cost of the individual attention required to address the child’s problems. When a child with a learning disability such as attention deficit disorder or dyslexia does not receive the needed help, that problem can become incredibly destructive to the child and to the parents.

Language is another issue; the older the child, the greater the problem. Without prior systematic instruction in Spanish, that child will not have the necessary oral, reading and writing skills to fully participate in the class. The parent often will have to hire a Spanish tutor for after-school instruction, thereby extending the youngster’s school day. (You can “pick up” a lot of oral language on the playground, but you need direct instruction in reading and writing.)

Curriculum can be a problem. There are differences and discontinuities between Mexican and US curricula. One obvious example in math is the Mexican metric system of meters and kilos versus the US and British feet and pounds. When a child returns to the US at the end of a year, for instance, that child will be evaluated with a standardized test. If he is under the grade level, he will be kept back.

Unfortunately and perhaps even disgracefully, his or her increased social awareness, greater knowledge of the Spanish language and broader cultural experience won’t be taken into account by most schools! One must ask what then is the purpose of education? In that environment, his test results determine his academic future.

These are only considerations, and depending on your personal circumstances they can be important or unimportant. The child’s age, whether you are here for a short or a long stay, the presence or absence of learning disabilities (only about 10 to 15 percent of kids are affected by these problems), and the adaptability of the child should all be considered by the parent.

The Olsens have worked in the field of education for 95 collective years. In SMA they have been professors at the University de Valle de Mexico. They now work as tutors with children having difficulty in school. They have been working with students in SMA for over 16 years. They can be contacted at sml1544374@prodigy.net.mx.