Day 9: Bilingual Education

Today instead of traditional classes we took a trip to a rural school about an hour outside of town to see a different kind of bilingual education. Here, the goal is to educate the children in both Spanish and the language of the Otomi, the indigenous people of the area. Many of the children hear the language at home, but this is a rare attempt to integrate it into the school. In contrast to bilingual education in the United States, where immigrants are learning the majority language, the goal in this school is to preserve an ancient language. It is a concept that is very recent, and only somewhat positively viewed- we were told that many people are not interested in preserving the language, but rather speaking Spanish and becoming more modern.

My time at the school was enjoyable. I was in third grade (coincidence this time), and watched the students gather rocks and leaves to use as supplies for a math lesson. The teacher said it is more successful to gather things from nature for class than to ask for parents to send things with the children. Instead of observing this time, I went into teacher mode, talking to the children and interacting. The children only worked in Spanish- the teacher told me later that because of the differences in their knowledge she actually does very little instruction in the Otomi language, which I learned later was in contrast to other teachers' styles. The class was very typical of what I had observed elsewhere, actually, and I really enjoyed getting to know the children.

The rest of the day was spent touring a nearby hacienda (Spanish for big fancy old house), eating at the nearby town, and returning home to rest. Below are pictures of the area where we were, which was at a higher elevation and very different from where I am now.