Phi Beta Delta Hosts Fulbright Scholar Talk

On Tuesday April 28, Phi Beta Delta sponsored a talk by Fulbright Scholar in residence Juan Manuel Guerra-Hernandez, who talked to students and others about the Mexican education system.

Guerra told the packed room that he began teaching in a one-room school in a remote village in Mexico when he was eighteen years old. In order to reach the village, he had to ride a bus for an hour and a half, and then walk up a mountain for an additional three hours. He taught twenty-two students who ranged in age from first to sixth grade. Since his first classroom experience, he has gone on to teach both elementary and high school students in a variety of locations around Mexico.

Guerra outlined the Mexican system, which is organized along the European model, and mentioned that the National Education System is currently in the process of adding additional years to the kindergarten program so that students will have access to free public education from age three to eighteen. In Mexico, school days for elementary students are divided into two sessions. Due to the large number of students who must be taught, some attend school from 7:00-12:00, and then the second group attends from 1:00-5:00. Teachers often are assigned to different schools for each session, and sometimes must teach outside their specialty in order to have a job, which is not an unusual occurrence here. Unlike the situation in the United States, all teachers who graduate are assigned jobs by the National Ministry of Education. Class sizes in the public schools are much larger than is typical here, with an average of 40-55 students in each class, and Guerra related that while education is free for all students, perhaps as many as 40% cannot afford the supplies that are not supplied by the government. The quality of the particular school is therefore largely dependent upon the ability of the local principal to secure additional funding to help students.

Like the U.S., Mexico must deal with students whose first language is not the same as the majority. Unlike the situation here, where the goal is English proficiency, in Mexico, bilingual education in languages such as Nahual, Mayan, or any of the other sixty two languages spoken there, is emphasized as a means of keeping the native languages alive.

After his prepared remarks, Guerra fielded a number of questions from students.

Guerra is at ONU working to teach students the native dances of his country. He and student dancers have been performing native Mexican dances for a variety of audiences including local grade schools in the area. He will also be delivering a talk about immigration issues to Professor Crawford's Recent US History class on Thursday, before he returns home on May 7.