Entrevista con el Ministerio Nacional de Educacion

Wednesday, August 5th

I’ve gotten into the habit of getting up around 8. But since I go to bed before midnight it’s not that difficult. I typically get woken up by Lu around 7:30 as she’s getting ready for school, and then I fall back asleep until around 8 or 8:15.

Today wasn’t cold! I would classify it as cool. It was quite wonderful, and wouldn’t even have required my peacoat, but well, I wore it for other reasons.

I did the normal morning routine of breakfast (tostada – one strawberry jam and one dulce de leche) and a cup of chocolate milk, read, checked email, and just got ready to go to the school! Schools here opened, after a month of swine flu and winter break, this Monday. Today was my first day to be in the classroom with Paz and her students.

As I was getting ready, I had to relook up the address to the school, which was when I noticed I was supposed to be there at 10:30, not 10:45 as I had thought. Luckily, the school is just a few blocks from my house, so I just left immediately and made it there only a few minutes late. As Argentine time has it though, I wasn’t late.

I entered the building, which they are renting while their new school is being built, and told the security guard at the top of the stairs I was supposed to meet Paz. He directed up more stairs, where I had to ask a girl where Paz was. She was nice and took me to their teacher’s lounge.

This school is a private school, and so it’s run a little differently. What I found out today is that the teachers come and go from the school. With English classes, they are all taught at one time. So all the English teachers were in the teachers lounge. However, once their class is done, they leave. I’m not sure if it’s the case for all, but in Paz’s case she then goes to the primary school and teacher there as well (7th grade). Their primary is until 7th, and then secondary is from 8th on.

We said hello and then went to the classroom. She has about 15 students, ranging from 13-15, so around Mary’s age. There was, of course, a murmur through the crowd as I walked in. Paz had me introduce myself, so I explained the basics, and then they had a few questions. Then, Paz had them introduce themselves, which they were all able to do the basic name, age, grade, winter break activities with relative ease. She would also interject to the side random facts about the kids. Paz also acts as a counselor for them (she’s a psychologist on the side, but who in BA isn’t?), so she knows extra info. The most interesting story was that one of the kids was adopted. His parents, having just gotten married, took their dog for a walk on New Year’s Eve and found a baby in the bushes. What a fairytale!

I think the funniest questions they asked me were if I had been to Las Vegas (interested in the casinos) and what sports I liked. I confused them with American football (I mean, I like Aggie football), but they did mention the Spurs (an Argentine is on the team). One of the girls had just gotten back from Miami, which is a SUPER popular place for people here. I’d say it’s the most well-known city in the U.S. here aside from maybe New York.

After introductions, Paz had them pull out their workbooks and they began to review homework they had done over the winter break. As they went through the exercises, I was taken back to my days in Sra.’s class. Paz teaches a lot like her. She really engages with the kids and jokes with them, but at the same time is serious about learning. If I teach, I hope I’m like that. Paz kept saying stuff like, sorry we have to review this, but I was perfectly content. I started thinking about why I enjoy the classroom so much, and I think it’s because I like transferring information, and my bossy side enjoys the idea of a classroom. Plus, the kids are just so cute! A few goofballs, but they have good hearts. I was just content.

After an hour, we got a break. I accompanied Paz to the teacher’s lounge, where she introduced me to all the teachers. I also talked to her supervisor, who agreed to let me interview her next week. Sweet! Still not going to have as much data as hoped for, but I’ll at least have a basis. We also decided that I would come on Wednesday the 19th, which is my last day in Buenos Aires. Man. I really wish that I could’ve been in the classroom the entire time, but I will certainly enjoy the 5 classes I have left (They only have English class 3 times a week, and next week Monday is a day off for them.).

Back in the class, they continued reviewing. Paz also introduced the topic of discrimination, which I will be going through with them next week. They just read a book, I forgot the name, which talked about apartheid in Africa. She said they were really interested in it, so it would be good for that to be my lesson topic. Lots of directions to take that one, but Paz said she would help me develop it.

After class, one of the cutest little boys stayed to ask me if we had rugby in the United States. We talked for a few minutes in English, and I felt so cool! Then, I left and came back to my apartment, where Maria Laura has been feverishly cooking. I had a hodgepodge of goodies for lunch from my shopping trip the other day, quickly donned another jacket (oh, went with the red peacoat because it looks more professional), and headed out.

It was about a 20 minute walk to the Ministerio de Cultura y Educacion. What’s so cool about this is that it’s located in an old palace. I wasn’t sure how to enter because I couldn’t find the street they had told me. Luckily, there was a security guard checking parking permits (hiss, from A&M) and he informed me that yes the parking lot street was the street name they had given me and that I should take the second door in. Inside, mechanical gates had to let you in. So I waited in line until the receptionist was available, then I told her my appointment, she asked for an official i.d. (gave her my driver’s license), and then I was allowed in. She asked me if I knew how to get there, and I said no….apparently I wasn’t convincing enough though. She pointed me in the general direction.

K, the office number 243, so I would think 2nd floor. Pues, I get to the second floor, and I’m surrounded by lower 200’s. So I ask a guy, and he tells me I have to go to the other side and downstairs. Well, I thought I had misheard him. My Spanish abilities always falter when I really need them. I made it to the end of the hall and was stuck. So I asked another guy, who asked a lady. They gave me instructions, but at this point I was a little flustered. I should review my directions vocabulary.

The lady was nice and escorted me to the office. You can’t blame me though, she said this place was a labrynth too. It was super confusing, and it turns out I did have to go downstairs. K, so I arrive in the office, tell the lady thankyou, oh because she said when she was in France people helped her out, so she would help me out.

Florencia, who I have been emailing with, is on the phone. Another lady takes me to where the lenguas especialistas are waiting. K, I was pretty sure they thought I was someone more important than I am when they agreed to meet with me via email, and their looks when I walked in confirmed it. Oh well, they already committed.

The room was SUPER hot, and I was actually down to my white blouse, but I was happy for once people actually got to see my clothes and not just my jacket.

Before we started, I asked them if they spoke English. Turns out everyone in BA wants to speak English except the people who work in the Ministry of Education. One lady said she spoke some, but I told them I would attempt in Spanish so we could all talk. Even though they sometimes couldn’t understand me, I was happily surprised that I caught about 95% of what she was saying with ease. Granted, it was all vocabulary that I’ve been working with in documents I’ve been reading, but still, gotta get props where I can.

I quickly found out my typical interview questions wouldn’t work as they didn’t really know the inside of a high school classroom. However, they were able to explain the broader picture of the language education side to me. The actual curriculum is determined lower on the rung. See, they are the National Ministry of Education….all of Argentina. Each province (kind of like our states) has its own Ministry of Education. What fascinated me is that in 2006 they made it a law to teach a foreign language from primary to secondary….for all of school. Since then, schools have been attempting to implement that. Basically, they’re in the middle of working out a revolutionary plan to have second language instruction at all levels of school. WHOAAAAAAAAA.

I wish I could’ve kept them for longer, but after about half an hour they started looking at their watches, so after one hour I thanked them and got their emails so I could follow up questions later. Oh, the other thing was the non-emphasis on English. One of the ladies spoke Spanish and French, which French makes a lot of sense. Apparently before the English craze French was considered the language a mode.

But she was quick to point out that not all schools elected to teach English, although no one can deny that that’s the main focus. She was also careful with her responses, saying that ALL second language learning was good. I tried to be clear that I agreed with her but for the scope of my project I was just focusing on English-Spanish.

But just think about if they get this figured out. I mean, I’m talking in terms of lots of years here. They still have lots of problems. They don’t have enough language teachers –she mentioned current discussions of obliging teachers to teach for 4 years after graduation from public universities (b/c public universities here are free) because most people who train to be teachers don’t end up actually teaching. Two main causes: plata (money) and lack of interest…younger people find businesses more interesting. They have a large divide between public and private schools. But one of the main reasons they wanted to pass this law was to give EVERYONE the opportunity to learn a second language….not just the privileged, private school kids. Education for all.

They’re currently in the stages of meeting with all of the individual provinces ministry’s and attempting to discern the regulations that will accompany this new law. I got SO excited when they were talking about this, I think it’s so cool! Learning a language is yes, communicating. But it’s so much more! In a language classroom, if correctly taught, you are exposed to another culture. You learn that things are DIFFERENT and that that’s GOOD. If taught correctly, you practice writing, reading, speaking, interacting with others. If you’re like me, you fall in love with it.

There are still lots of tangents, and who knows how Argentina’s system will end up. Because the way many classes are taught now, it’s not an effective use of time. They face a lot of the same educational problems that the States faces. But they’re trying. They’ve taken ACTION. Kudos Argentina.

So cool. So so so so so cool.

Anyways, I hung out at the house until my lesson with Patricia at 6:30. She cancelled last week, so this was our first lesson. I brought my reading about driving which one day apparently I went crazy and made like 10 copies of it, so I’m trying to use it. Since she wants to focus on pronunciation pretty much anything can work. Now remember, she’s the one who has the awesome office on the 29th floor, from which she can just make out Uruguay on a nice day. I made it through the subte and to the building, where I had to go through the usual process of handing over some form of i.d. so I could enter. When I reached the office, another worker let me into her office.

I was 5 minutes late, but then she was another 10 minutes late. Yay Argentina. Plus, she’s a workaholic. We got through everything pretty quickly. We focused on pronunciation of “th”. Out of habit she makes a “d” sound instead of “th”. Knowing that she wouldn’t have time to do homework if I gave it to her, I just asked her to practice the pronunciation.

When I returned home, I was worried because I had received an email from Monica asking me why I missed a class Tuesday afternoon. It was a class we had talked about last week, and I distinctly remembered telling her I couldn’t because I teach in Quilmes on Tuesdays, but she must’ve forgotten. Even though I knew it wasn’t my fault, I was worried because I didn’t want Monica upset with me. She’s wonderful, but when she gets angry….

So I quickly typed out a response and reminded her that I would be unable to go to that class on Thursday either.