Job Discussion Forums

[Dragonlady]

deleted

[FreddyM]

[mejms]

Great thread on the state of colegios in the country. Gregd75 is up in arms whenever language institutes are largely criticized. Isn't there anyone who'll come to the defense of colegios?

As a parent, I can't believe what these schools charge for tuition and enrollment. As a parent and a professional, I can't believe that schools get away with it. In my experience at least, I've found that parents are pretty uninvolved. I've neither seen evidence of any sort parent teacher organization nor anything like an open house at the schools I've visited. At the school where my son is now I got a 15 minute conference with his two teachers that was just full of generic comments and, when I was asking for some particulars, an alarm went off and we were on our way. I ended up speaking to the director of Kindergarten and the director of the school. When I mentioned the fact that there was no communication from the school on some sort of personal level, I was told that "no news is good news." After the meeting, there was never any follow-up from them. This is one of the more "presitigous" colegios in the area.

Schools seem to have no professional standard for excellence. They rely heavily on renowned Cambridge and Trinity certifications. Teachers come a dime a dozen. There are, from what I've seen, no real standards for native teachers-- just someone who'll be there and go through the motions. I'd love to get in the field one day and try do it right-- maybe open a school one day-- but the thing is that maybe most people don't seem to care if it's done right or not.

What about TEC de Monterrey? People with experience with it, how would you rank it compared to universities in the US and elsewhere?

[jaimem-g]

I am only familiar with the Tec by reputation. I've known a couple of graduates and they also knew English pretty well. And I have a MBA friend who was an economics prof at TCU in Texas and taught for them at their Chihuahua campus.

They are accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges in the US so their classes are generally tranferrable to unis in the US and their degrees get equal status. Their MBA program is accredited in the US and UK, too.

They have branch sites all over Mexico and a lot of prepa schools. I don't know about accreditation for these except that they do have bilingual curriculae. They like to hire only teachers and profs with master's and above... and all of their programs have expensive tuition. But they do seem to be far above appearances only.

[mejms]

[mejms]

[Guy Courchesne]

My daughter is only 12 months old and not yet in school, but schooling costs down the road are an issue we've been talking about lots. My girlfriend gets a significant discount where she works (one of the top schools in the country), but even with the discount it will be pricey.

Public school is not an option we're entertaining at all.

[mejms]

[Dragonlady]

deleted

[mejms]

[TeresaLopez]

Well, one bad homeschooler isn't all homeschoolers. When I lived in the US I taught Spanish to a large homeschool group, and the kids were great - easily the best group I have ever taught. They had plenty of social activities, and were socially fine, in fact, I think, better than fine, as they were accustomed to interacting with kids of different ages, as well as adults. And though homeschooling kids, just like any others, run the gamut in terms of intelligence, most of the kids were a year or two ahead, and those who had trouble learning had the luxury of being able to be taught at their own pace, without being made to feel dumb. Later, I tutored one kid from this group on his own in Spanish, and he was a very mature young man, he was also quite advanced, and while he didn't have a large social circle, he had several good friends, and a number of outside activities - he played violin, played in a chess club, etc. In large cities in the US homeschooling is becoming more and more common, as the schools are often crap, and dangerous to boot. Many school systems are now getting in on it by offering online classes, complete with live teachers, etc. The couple of programs I have looked at were very impressive, and had very high standards.

[notamiss]

[brian1972]

[quote="mejms"]