3 weeks

Buenos Dias!

It's Friday, October 12--dia festivo. There is no school today, which hardly affects me since I don't work on Fridays anyway. For me, all weekends are three day long affairs!  I wish that yesterday the teachers at my school (Perez Galdos) had told me a little bit about the significance of October 12th in Spain, or asked their students to describe the holiday to me in English. Instead, my teachers encouraged the students not to show up to their last classes, and to "attend" the street marches in the center instead, since there was a student strike scheduled yesterday at noon. The students didn't show up to class, but the teachers doubted that many of them actually participated in the demonstration.  Regardless, their holiday begain several hours earlier! It's not that the teachers here are lazy-- it is apparent that they feel very discouraged in their work, having less time to teach more classes than ever before, each class with well over 30 students. Due to the economic crisis, of course they are earing less money even though they are required to work longer hours and serve more students. They are uncertain what the future cuts will mean for them. Who knows what will become of their salaries and benefits. Spain is very nearly bankrupt!!

At Perez Galdos, right off the bat, one of my teachers, Pilar, asked me to prepare a presentation in which I would describe the two party system of the US, explaining hot topics that typically divide our society and brand our presidential candidates. I half-heartedly put together such a presentation and managed to devise a chart to show how democrats and republicans tend to disagree on several topics such as: environmental protection, universal health care, public services and education, taxation, gay rights, women's rights, etc. I decided to pose a game for the students to assimilate how differing opinions regarding a variety of issues play out in society. I explained two polar responses to a controversial topic in the US, like Gay rights, and let the students move to one side of the room or the other or to a place in between the two extremes and then I randomly chose people to explain their position.  This is the same game we played in Environmental Curriculum with Wendy Walker. Some of the students, particularly one girl, understood the issues and enjoyed considering their beliefs about them. I noticed that almost all students chose the more leftist response to each prompt. However, I also noticed that if one student wandered toward the right and realized that no one else did, then that student usually retreated back toward the center or far opposite extreme. It was hard for me to tell if this was because the student misunderstood how the room split on that specific topic, or if the choice to move back stemmed from not wanting to express a different opinion (could have been both).  A couple of the boys felt uncomfortable expressing their political point of view in front of others and told me that I should have been asking them questions like, "Do you think zoo animals should be caged or do you think it is wrong to keep animals in captivity?" I explained that I had chosen issues that split the democrat and republican parties in the US because this is what their teacher had asked me to teach them about. Perhaps the excersize demanded them to express too much, so soon in our meeting, and I would have been better off having them read aloud liberal and conservative responses to several topics...

Pilar, I can tell, really wants the youth of Spain to wake up and participate in the social political circumstances of the day. She laments that this is the most apathetic generation of all time. In class, on Tuesday, before I introduced the controversial issue excersize with her students on Thursday, she told them they would each have to choose a topic to write a paper on and prepare a speech to present. She set open peremeters, requiring them simply to choose a subject pertaining to Spain, explaining that this would be an opportunity for each of them to teach me about Spanish culture (of course, I'll be the one reading and commenting on the papers?? Really, Pilar??). She asked them if anyone would be choosing to write/speak about 25M. Do you know what 25M is?

The 25th of May, 2011.

On this day, Spain started the worldwide Occupy movement. It coincides with the beginning of the great collapse of their economy, which had been among the top ten economies in the world prior. Only one student in the class volunteered to know very much about the current goings on in Spain, and his perception seemed to come mostly from reading media coverage. This student had a very conservative attitude and an ironic background which Pilar whispered something about in my ear when he chose a conservative stance regarding immigration policies). This student acutally is an immigrant of Spain, coming from Ecuador, all the while believing that immigration regulations should be more strictly enforced. Responding to his thoughts about the riots,  Pilar told him, "You cannot believe everything you read in the media. You must go out in to the world and see for yourself! Do you know how the police treated the protestors? They were provoking them!" All the while, the girls sat chit-chatting with each other, completely ignoring the teacher's prying. Pilar's prying soon became a mildly heated lecture. She said things like, "My generation took down Franco. What is your generation doing? You couldn't care less about what is happening in your country! Did you know that if you're 26 in Spain and have no job, you will have no health care benefits? Did you know that Spain formerly had the best health care system in all of Europe?" One of the girls responded, "Are you talking about eSpain?" She had no idea...

I admit, this episode shocked me. These students are the age of our high school seniors, 17 and 18 years old, in their last year of bachillerato, university bound in one year. I don't know why I expected the Spanish youth to be radically different from the youth back home in the states, but I did think they would be generally more aware of the world and less "me" centered. Perhaps, because I am an American who has traveled and lived abroad and who therefore has interacted with many people who share the notion that I come from an ignorant, ableit powerful and rich, nation of unworldly pigs and slobs (they usually use different phrasing, but this is how I interpret the general perception people come to have about American people), I expected the Spanish youth to be inspiringly well informed about world issues, particularly pertaining to the crisis in Spain, and less caught up in their own social networking and wants to be cool, attractive, popular, etc. Well, in this world of facebook, twittering, youtube, videogames, and other virtual distractions, I guess it matters little if you are from here or there. The youth of the modern, industrialized world tends to be malinformed and uninterested in the socio-political events of our time, whether they're US citizens or not. The youth of today, at least in westernized countries, are almost always plugged in  and/or staring at the pixels of something that keeps them from knowing much about anything that is actually happening in the world. This is so disheartening, not to mention frightening.

I am glad to know Pilar because she has strong opinions and expresses them freely to me, and this is enriching. Plus, she is very loving and helpful. She says she is as lost as I am (uh oh); this is her first year teaching at Perez Galdos. It is hard for me to find my way around, because all of the hallways look alike and there is very little personality offered by any room. In the US, typically teachers have classrooms that they can decorate and "live in" for years and years and the visual markers at each door help a lot. In Spain, teachers are most at home in the department offices, and shuffle from classroom to classroom throughout the day, meeting students in their rooms. 

At Perez Galdos, I have also assisted a substitute teacher, Maria (I think about half the women I meet are Marias; I almost want to roll my eyes when I hear that a person's name is Maria. I refrain, because this would be so disrespectful!). Every day, this Maria hopes I come with a plan to lead the entire class period. She has described to me how teaching used to be a good position, in which you could earn enough money to live decently and then have plenty of time to maintain your life outside of work, and this is why she chose her vocation. She loves to hike and run and be free. She disdains most Spanish traditions  (like Alvaro, mom!).

My feeling, based on how teachers describe their jobs as they were before and as they are now, is that teachers used to work considerably fewer hours than the typical US teacher does and that they now work almost as many hours as US teachers, but perhaps still not as many. Evidence that they don't work as many: Teachers arrive at school just a few minutes before class begins..and within twenty minutes after the last bell chimes, all teachers are gone. Also, after the last class, don't bother trying to meet with any administrator..they're gone too.

Pilar is more than happy to have me prepare presentations, facilitate the classes and do a lot of the correcting, which is not written in the description of my position. In fact, I am not permitted to do any correcting or grading, however I can read papers and leave comments (thus, there is a grey area when it comes to "correcting"). Unfortunately, the ministerio de educacion can't be bothered to send any written description of the roles and duties of the auxiliares and so our positions are left to be interpretted by each institute, and then by each teacher. Having to split my time between two schools, can you imagine the variety of interpretation I am subjected to? I have yet to adapt fully to this role, as so far I have not had a consistent schedule at either school. I have been told at both that new teachers will be coming soon and so things will continue to change.  Fortunately, it seems that teachers expect me to do basically whatever I want. I can help as little or as much as I choose...which lets me feel free. I tend to want to participate, so I think I'll offer quite a lot.

At Santa Eugenia, the teachers prefer to leave political affairs aside during class time. They still complain a great deal to me about how overworked and under compensated they are because of the crisis. Nieves, one of my teachers at Santa Eugenia, changes schools every year because she can't be promised a permanent position. In Spain, you must take a test and compete with all other teachers for permanent placement at a school. If your score is below the bar, by even just a point, as she says hers always is, the ministerio throws your around from school to school and so you never know how long you might stay in one place. I can imagine that this would be very challenging, especially in a country as unorganized as Spain. You would never know your colleagues or administrators very well or establish great rapport with students. Plus, the text books used at each school are different. Nieves has asked me if I have plans for her class, just moments before class begins. I reply, "Well, I have no idea what your students are learning about and so, no, I don't have particular plans. However, I don't mind preparing something, if you give me some idea what the students are learning about." Then, she admits that she also has no plans! Wow..

In Jose Maria's classes, he often tells his students to ask me questions, prompting them absurdly:
Jose Maria: "Carlos, ask Liza if she likes ballet. Ask her."
Carlos: "No, profe. Es tu pregunta!"
Jose Maria: "You must ask her if she likes ballet!"
Carlos: "Do you like ballet?"
Liza: "I like to watch ballet from time to time but it is not something I am exceptionally interested in."
Jose Maria: "Students, this is very important!! Who can repeat what Liza has said?"

Chus likes to tell me in the first minutes of classtime which activities she wants me to lead. I have no time to prepare. So far, it's okay because the excersizes are very basic. Mainly, I read diologues to the class and ask them questions to test their comprehension. However, I would prefer to have time to read through the practices prior to engaging the students in the excersizes. All the teachers need to do is tell me which pages to prepare for; I have copies of all the books!

It's also strange teaching British English, because it is subtly quite different. The Brits say things like, " I have got a cat," instead of, "I have a cat."  They use different words, such as mum and fancy dress costume, which make me want to giggle. I had to teach the students about an idiom I'd never heard before, "over the moon." It's meant to express unparalleled emotion. Have any of you, reading this, heard of this idiom before?

Well, I'm going to a yoga class soon. Getting back to the dia festivo. I believe the 12th of October is meant to commemorate the efforts of Cristobal Colon "discovering" the New World. Perhaps, I'll read a little bit more on this a little bit later...I know it is also the day to honor Saint Pilar. I know this because Perez Galdos is in Barrio Pilar and today all of the students from that school are going to a fair to party and have a very good time (hopefully, not drinking too much!)

Love and peace to all of you! I certainly miss seeing the mountains and waters of home, and the familiar faces of family and friends. I hope Tacoma receives a wash of rain soon. I will pray that it rains there, soon!!!