Everything School Part 2

The kids will have completed their first year of spanish public school on June 21st, this year. I posted my first blog post about school titled “Everything School” back in October and now seems like a good time to share more about what we’ve learned and experienced in the public school system.

Davin and I often think back to the first day of school in September when we dropped the kids off at the gate and how overwhelmed we were with feelings of guilt and worry that entire day, not knowing what we had subjected our kids to. We were so clueless about everything - from who the kids’ teachers were to how to contact the school to what books the kids needed to how the lunch ("comedor") period worked, etc. Much has changed, and we are very happy with the school, the staff, and the support that our kids have had in their transition to a new school, language, and culture. Below are some of my observations that are not only useful for new families entering the school system in Spain, but also interesting differences in pedagogy and educational culture between the US and Spain.

Parent-Teacher Communication

Our kids were provided with “agenda” books at the begining of the school year which are the only way parents have to communicate with the teachers (other than face-to-face).  I had been used to emailing my kids’ teachers in the US, and answering many parent emails and calls as a teacher myself in addition to the bi-annual parent-teacher conferences - so this was very different. The agenda book goes back and forth to school every day (in theory). Kids use it to write when there are upcoming exams and teachers report the scores in the book. It is also used for reminders of what to bring to school. Other than the agenda, we'll receive a handout once a month that informs of us an upcoming field trip or school happening. That's it.

There are no parent-teacher conferences. If you want to meet with your child’s teacher, it must be done on a Wednesday at 12:30pm. You need to write your request for the meeting in your child’s agenda, and trust that your child will actually remember to show that message to the teacher (and if you have a son like mine who forgets easily, you can imagine that it may not happen for a couple weeks). I struggled to accept this model at first but it is what it is. What about parents who work? And only Wednesdays? Luckily, we have the flexibility to make it work.

Curriculum

Because we had such drama obtaining the kids’ required textbooks at the beginning of the year (we ordered from the ONE store in town that sells them and it took 6-8 weeks), I didn’t have a grasp on how the Spanish curriculum compared to American curriculum. In fact, I still don’t feel like I do at this point in time because my kids don’t bring much work home and I’m not sure what is “catch up” and what is “grade level” work.

My daughter’s 1st-grade curriculum appears to be quite a bit easier than what you’d see in the US. I think there is a heavy emphasis on reading here, an area in which she’s improved dramatically throughout the year. Math is probably about the same, if not a bit easier. The level of her English class is the same as what you’d expect of an extracurricular Spanish class in the US: lots of colors, numbers, animals, and basic phrases. Naturally, she loves the class because she feels like a genius!

My son has faced a much bigger challenge this year. In the US, he would have been in 2nd grade, but in the Spanish system, he was placed in 3rd grade. From the beginning, we knew he would struggle more than our daughter because language acquisition is more difficult at an older age. Plus, the curriculum was going to be a challenge since he, in a sense, skipped a grade and now was learning a totally new language. For the first half of the year, he received small group language support but was able to ‘hang’ with the class in math (large number addition, subtraction, then multiplication).

Other Subjects

Religion - When we submitted our school enrollment paperwork at the beginning of the year we had to check a box that asked if our kids were Catholic or not. I didn’t understand this, but learned that one subject offered is “Religion.” While our children are not Catholic, I would have liked to have them learn what the other kids are learning during that class (two times per week). I still don’t know what my kids do while the Catholic ones are at this class?!?

Valenciano - I briefly mentioned this in a previous blog post. Valenciano is the language of the region in which we live, Valencia. All of the elementary schools in Javea teach the children in Valenciano and it is the language most Xabia (the Valenciano spelling of Javea) natives speak in their home (unless parents have immigrated from South America or other parts of Spain). My children are in the only line of classes in Javea that are taught primarily in Castellano (which is the Spanish language we know to be Spanish). However, they do have Valenciano language class (to learn the language) and their science class and math classes (and textbooks) are taught in Valenciano.

For the first few months, my kids were being pulled out of Valenciano class to work on their Castellano with a small group of other international students. But eventually, they were back in Valenciano with the rest of the class. Unfortunately, when it comes to helping them with Valenciano homework, I am of no help. No Valenciano dictionary exists. Google translate is of no use. We'll see how that goes in the future. I'm amazed how they've been able to cope with this.

Musica, Educación Fisica, & Plasticas - I’m not sure why Art is called “Plasticos”. My kids love physical education. I have to get out of the habit of calling it “gym” because there really isn’t a gymnasium- they are outdoors every day. Here is a taste of what they get to learn in music class and celebrate:

Homework and Exams

In general, my children have had very little homework this year. In the beginning, they brought home a few basic worksheets with Castellano vocabulary. Compared to the workload from the US this worried me at first. Were the kids going to get out of the habit/routine of daily homework? Shouldn't they be doing at least something every week if not every day? However, I quickly realized that both kids, even to this day, are so exhausted after school that it probably would have been an ugly battle. It's even been a battle to get them to go to tennis lessons twice a week after school because they are so incredibly exhausted after the school day using all that brainpower, and they just want to go home and relax.

Report Card

About half way through the year I started to see exam scores documented in their agendas. All scores are out of 10. A score of 5 is passing, 6-7 is a good, and 8 and above is exemplary. Sometimes, there would be a note that says when a test needed to be retaken. Usually, a slip of paper comes home with one of their textbooks identifying the pages that we need to ‘repasar’ (review) before an exam. I have never actually seen an exam that either have taken. I have no idea how long they are, what types of questions are asked, and how my children perform except for the number that they scored.

Evaluation and Passing The Grade

Ultimately, in Spain, the responsibility of learning is on the student and if you don’t pass, you fail. Most Spaniards who’ve grown up in the Spanish public school system have ‘failed’ a grade at least once. There are very successful college graduates who 've failed 2 or 3 grades along the way. It is a totally normal part of the education process in Spain - very different than the U.S. where it is practically impossible to fail a grade!

I’ve observed that Spain has a very old fashioned approach to learning. It is very paper-based and teachers still do dictation (where teachers dictate and the kids write and write). I think back to my teaching pedagogy in college and this would be unacceptable in US standards. This approach makes learning much more challenging for students who aren’t naturally gifted readers and writers. Our son has struggled over the past two years to overcome reading difficulties due to exotropia (one eye turns out and thus eyes have difficulty pairing). He is a very bright kid, but his circumstance requires much more energy exertion in reading and writing. So as you can imagine, he was just starting to overcome this challenge as a first grader in the U.S reading in English, then we moved to Spain, where he has had to learn to read and write in a new language at a third grade level in a very paper-based (rather than hands-on) curriculum. His confidence was shattered and he was really unhappy for quite a while. Nine months later he has come a LONG way and we are so proud of his perseverance. His grades, of course, are sub-par and therefore he will not move onto 4th grade next year. We met with his teacher recently, and while she was equally happy with his progress, we all decided that repeating 3rd grade is the best option for him. There will be a few other children in the school- especially older who have recently moved to Spain - doing the same thing. Declan is happy with the idea that he will get to be a ‘leader’ next year amongst the new group of students. Phewww!

Comedor

The kids stay at school from 12:30 - 3:00pm for the mid-day break called “comedor” which consists of lunch and free play. The teachers and staff all have their break at this time as well. A third party company provides the lunch and staff who monitor the children. My impression is that the staff are very hands-off and the kids decide how to pass the time. At first, my kids reported that they were bullied a lot and there was never a 'teacher' around to help them sort it out. This worried me for a long time, but in the end, I think it forced the kids to be assertive, to negotiate, and to ultimately work out issues on their own- an invaluable life skill.

Declan lives for comedor for two reasons: first, because the food is “amazing” and from time to time he’ll get rewarded with a Fanta or Coke from the staff when he behaves and eats all of his food, and second, because he gets to play soccer (I mean football) with all of his friends. The children have to coordinate who brings the ball, who’s on which team, and keep each other accountable to the rules. Volly also reports that she’s gotten pop or cookies for helping the staff prepare lunch. She told me that when it’s a child’s birthday, the cooks bake a cake, and the child gets to stand on top of the table while everyone sings “happy birthday” in Spanish and English. (In June the school day changes to half day like it was in September, 9am - 1pm. We’ll have to decide if the kids are going to remain in comedor until 3pm). I don't love my kids having soda, but I do love Spain and how relaxed they are about things that Americans are so overly up-tight.

After Comedor
Consider yourself luckily if you have to go to the bathroom on the patio (playground area) and there is actually toilet paper. We've learned to send a pack of tissues with the kids to school.