Poverty and School in Other Countries

I have found two great conversation partners to understand two different cultures. The first person is named Heather.  She works for the US school system in Europe, but does interact with the cultures their and also knows about the different school systems. She has told me so far that in Spain and Italy the kids go half days Mon to Sat. They go home for lunch and stay home. This is for many reasons. The first reason is the emphasis on family bonding. The schools also save money on only having the building open for a couple of hours a day, and do not have to include “wasted” time in the school day such as lunch and recess. The children then are able to go to work (in older grades) and the younger children can help their parents around the house. I think that being able to go to school and work for these children in a wonderful opportunity to learn time management and also how to support themselves once they are out of school. They can also start their careers very early and progress quickly. Poverty is not very high in Spain because everyone is mostly the same economic status. They all help each other and live only in their means.

The second person I have been talking to is John and he lives in Cozumel, Mexico. He has been harder to contact since he does not have internet in his home and only can use it at the school when his time is slotted. He has told me that whenever a cruise ship or big groups of tourist come, the children are to leave school and help their parents in the shops or stands to earn money. Their whole schooling is based around travel time and the main way of money for most families is from tourism. Many people in the city also work at tourist attractions (dolphin encounters, parasailing, fishing boats, etc) because they know that they will have a steady income. He says that school takes place Monday – Thursday and his class roster is 35. He said on good days he will see 15 of the students. School is not a big emphasis in this tourist town. I have never really considered the idea of tourism before for these countries that are poor and how much it means to them. It is crazy for me to think about risking a child’s education like this, but the child is learning the value of money and social skills.

I have learned a bunch about difficult cultures this week and hope to use my resources to learn even more.