School

Another school year has begun.

I do not have a high opinion of the way kids are taught here.  There is a lot of "sit down, shut up, and copy" type of instruction.  There are a lot of missed school days for teacher strikes and other things.  The kids start school at 8:00.  Maybe.  Sometimes, the teachers are not even there by 8:00.  They get at at 12:40 and there are a couple of recesses in that short amount of time. 

Last year, to increase the number of hours taught, the kids had to go to school on Saturday.  When my kids were in school, Saturday school was punishment.  I could kind of say the same for Saturday school in Honduras.  At least for the adults that had to get them up and ready for school, it was.  When school was not canceled on Saturday, they only went for two hours.  And, when teachers are late, you reduce that time even more.  Thirty minutes more each weekday would have been a lot more productive.

Soon, the teachers tired of this and Saturday school was a thing of the past.  Not that I minded.

There was talk of a huge education reform.  Instead of the kids finishing school in 6th grade, there was going to be 2, maybe 3, years added before they went to high school.  This sounds good to add more years of instruction.  All that happened with that was the 6th graders got cheated out of a 6th grade graduation.  The kids that could afford to go on, went to high school.

The next plan was to make them go longer each day, two or three hours longer each day.  And, send them home for lunch.  I feared they would go to school all day, not get much more instruction and still have the same insane amount of homework.

Some schools are choosing to go all day.  The schools in Santa Ana decided to wait and see if the government comes through with the money for lunch as they promised.  Our kids are going from 8:00 a.m. until 12:40 p.m. 

I think when teachers don't get paid for the extra hours, or don't get paid at all, that the longer school day will be a thing of the past just as Saturday school was.

This country definitely needs some education reform.  I just have not seen it yet.