el Liceo Santa Theresa de los Andes

My beloved readers, you are in for an earful.

It was day 1 for me at el Liceo Santa Theresa de los Andes, a school in Miraflores alto in Viña, waay up in the hills. Everything preconceived notion I had in my head about a Catholic school was pretty much shattered. Everything I could not do in my schools in Hamburg these kids can do in this school.

The school is grades 3(?) to 12, básica including up to grade 8. I had expected the kids to wear uniforms, I think most Chilean schools require this. I quite like this actually. I had expected the kids to greet each other with kisses and hugs and affection, but not with the teachers, but it is so. In the 5th grade class, one girl arrived late, but still proceeded to greet all of her friends before taking her seat. There are 15 minute breaks between classes, where the kids can buy snacks and hang out in the open-air gymnasium. Here the equivalent of a study hall proctor makes sure kids don't kill each other. The best part is that he (or she) is called the "Inspector," which I find to be fantastic. Every day at 10:00 the whole school lines up by class to hear greetings and announcements from the principal. Everyone arrives 5 minutes late to class, some later, and it is considered fine. The classes themselves are pandemonium, at least in the English room, 5th grade being really bad. The English classes are large, ranging from 35 to 37 students. There is constant conversation while teaching is happening, and never more than 1/3 of the class pays attention at the same time. Whether it is a cultural thing or at the discretion of the teacher, I am unsure but everything is really relaxed. I don't feel good about the classroom management, but maybe I just have to observe more. The classroom management, or lack thereof, made it hard for me to talk to the class as a whole even just to have them hear me. I wanted to bash my head against the wall after 15 minutes of the pandemonium, but I held on, observing. Kids fought and threw stuff at each other. I mean fought, like with fists, smacking each other, all of it ignored. Conversations, all the time, over the teacher. I really am unsure how much of it is culturally "Chile," and/or how much of it is that teacher's style, etc. Give me some more time to watch and learn.

So essentially, my equivalent schooling experience is monumentally different than was these kids are living. I am intrigued.

I have 5 hours each day Thurs and Fri to help out at the school, in different English classes. Though it is not much help for my Spanish, I especially like interacting with the older kids, to talk with them about Chile and life in a Chilean school. It is acceptable for me to hang out in between classes with the kids, in place of the teacher's lounge, to get to know them, and for conversation practice both ways; Aaron for instance speaks great English and has already taught me much about how the school system works. I find this infinitely more interesting than talking with the teachers, though maybe I should give them more of a chance.

For my notes on today, all I wrote "pandemonium en la aula."

For how crazy it was, I loved the experience and can't wait to return. Please, don't think Chilean schools are crap places where kids don't learn anything, because that is not true. There are good teachers, kids learn a ton, they go to college, they are successful. But they sure are different from Hamburg.