Time for School

    School starts on Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited. So far, my experience at the school has been wonderful. Colegio Inglés is a private school that offers a bilingual education with native English speakers. This sort of education is highly sought after here. There is another private school in Torreón with a similar program called Colegio Americano. The difference between private and public schools in Mexico is huge. The public schools don't have the physical resources to provide students with an outstanding education. Private schools are very expensive, but they truly provide a great education, and many offer bilingual programs. I have been asking other Mexicans about the schools here, and they said that many students can't even afford the dues at public schools, so they don't go at all.
     The program at Colegio Inglés is great. The three levels of the school are preprimaria (preschool), primaria (elementary), and secundaria (high school). There is a program for babies starting at 2 years old, and they are with a Mexican teacher who speaks to them all in English. That way, they get familiar with the language but it is not completely foreign to them. At 3-4 years old, the kids go to Kinder 1, and then at 4-5 years old they go to Kinder 2. Both of the Kinders are similar. They spend half of their day with a Mexican teacher who teaches them how to read and write in Spanish, and then they spend the other half of the day with a native English speaker who does reading, math, and phonics in English. The next grade is pre-escolar (me!). The have a native English speaking teacher who teaches them reading, math, science, and phonics. They leave the class for 1/2 hour every day to go learn reading and writing in Spanish with a Mexican teacher, and also have phy ed, computer, religion, and library classes throughout the week. After this level, they have completed the preprimaria part of the school. Next, they move into primaria, which is grades 1-6. During premaria, the students spend almost their entire day with their English teacher. The curriculum is pretty intense. They must complete workbooks for math and English and they have exams starting in 1st grade every month, which makes up 50% of their final grade. The last part of school is secundaria. In secundaria, they go to their English classes with native speakers, and also to history, art, science, and math with native English speakers. They finish the school in 9th grade. After 9th grade, many students go to the United States to finish high school, or they go to another private high school.
     I have talked with a lot of the kids at the school and even at the 3rd grade level, they are speaking very good English. I have been instructed to only speak English to the students. They should not even know that I can speak Spanish. The parents get very upset if they hear that their student's teacher spoke Spanish to them because they are spending a lot of money to have their kids learn from a native speaker. I am a little nervous about not speaking Spanish because it is so much easier. I had a hard time sticking to English when I was teaching in Costa Rica. I am going to try my best though!