Answers from the Students in Mexico Spring 2012
Greeting | School | Home | Monarch

I started my way out walking into the streets of town and ran into Jaime and Fernando.

1. How do you get to school, walk or ride a bus?

Jaime: "Most of us children in town normally walk, except those like me who attend a private school in a town near by called Aporo." We are about 20 children from town attending this school, and it takes us about 40 minutes to get there."

2. What time does school start and how long is your day?

Fernando: "All schools start at the same time, 8:30 to 13 for public schools and 14 hrs., for private schools."

3. How many days a week do you go to school?

Jaime and Fernando: "We attend school five days a week." These following questions were answered by elementary school children, grade 6th, (last grade at this level), from the "Isaac Arriaga School."

4. What is a typical day like in your school?

Several students answering at the same time, eager to participate: "As soon as we get to school, we get directly into our classrooms, and start working from one to two hours on different subjects, depending on how the teacher has planned the day. We do not study all subjects every day. We have one teacher for most or our subjects, except for music, computers and sports and for English in private schools. We stop at 11:30hrs. for lunch. We get only half an hour for lunch and from there we continue our classes up to 1 or 2 p.m."

5. What subjects do you study in school?

"At elementary level, like ours, both private and public schools attend the same subjects, but English, which is tought only in private schools."

6. Why do you have plastic or paper covering your desks and tables?

Students at the same school, 5th grade: Because this way the surface keeps in good conditions, since our teachers get very angry because many of us tend to write or even to scratch on it."

7. What is the best part of going to school each day?

Ivan: "Attending Music and Maths class."

The whole group: "Being with our friends!!!"

8. Do you get lunch at school, or bring lunch from home to eat—or do you go home each day for lunch?

"We get a light-good breakfast at home and sometimes we bring lunch with us. There are snacks available at each school to have, so we buy some at breaktime. At no school are we allowed to go home to have lunch. We have dinner as soon as we get back home from school, between 2-3 pm."

9. We love Pizza Day at our school. Do you have Pizza Day at your school?

"No, pizza is not a very common dish for us in town or in our communities; Pizza has become more common during the last years, but still we do not have it often. We normally have it when we visit relatives in the city. We have POZOLE Day at school, normally on Mondays at lunch time ."

10. How many classes of grades and number of kids go to your school?

"All elementary schools, both private and public have 6 grades. At a private school, you have an average of 15-20 students per class. At a public school, we are about double the quantity; this means that the populationa in a private school is above 100 students. In a public school it may sometimes reach or go beyond 300 kids."

Jaime and Fernando

Students at Isaac Arriaga School

Several students answering, eager to participate.

Ivan

"Being with our friends!!!"

Pozole