Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

In some dark corner of an ESL forum elsewhere, I read a poster write that 'Mexican parents don't care about their childrens' education'.

My immediate reaction was to take offense, and brand the poster's comment racist. Perhaps I was too harsh, but the poster is unrepentant.

What do you in Mexico think? Do parents not care? Of the parents I know here, including those in my family, they are practically killing themselves trying to pay for the best eduation they can get for their kids.

[sickbag]

Parents certainly care at the school I�m at. Any slightly below-par monthly grade and the parents are on the phone demanding a meeting. Which has made for some interesting chats given that my Spanish is still less than perfect.

[MELEE]

I think I'd have to agree with you guy, that comment may be true for some parents that the poster has contact with, just like there are surely some parents in every country in the world who do not value formal education. However, I do think the vast majority of parents (in any country in the world) care about their children's education. It is often the case that the poster (I'm assuming s/he was not Mexican) doesn't have enough cultural awareness or insights to see what is going on. Most likely, Mexican parents don't interact with their children's teachers in the same way that parents in the poster's home country do, so they missinterpreted this as not caring.

I have seen the case were parents do not have much formal education themselves and often have, unwarented, high regard for teachers and schools, and do not question what goes on in schools, because 1) they assume what is going on is the best (that the teachers/department of education know what they are doing) or two 2) they don't feel competent themselves to judge what is or isn't good education. Unfortunately, the Mexican Secretary of Education has proven itself to be and incompetent out-of-date organization on more than one occasion. (Was that a racist comment? )

[Samantha]

Nahhhh....just political.

[joshua2004]

I agree with you MELEE. I think people are people anywhere you go. One interesting thing I discovered in my study was an article that showed how Mexicans place less emphasis on homework compared to other cultures. And since coming here I am amazed (and somewhat delighted) at the smaller amount of homework people get here on average, compared to the States, where I am from.

http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/hardwork/hardwork.pdf

I don't know much about the Secretary of Education here in Mexico however.

[saraswati]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[MELEE]

I skimmed the article that Joshua posted, and it was talking about Mexicans in the United States as opposed to other immigrant groups. Specifically that the children of asia boat people of the late 80-early 90s did very well in the US despite being poor and having uneducated parents because they did more homework than the children of other immigrants.

[Guy Courchesne]

I spoke with a Korean mother of two girls whom I am currently tutoring...asking about what she thought of the amount of homework, with an eye to getting the Korean perspective on Mexico. Her kids are going to an expensive foreign school in DF. She says that they still don't get enough homework. I understand that Koreans can be quite strict with education and insist on a very heavy workload though. Her two kids are getting afterschool tutoring in English, GMAT prep, English writing, Japanese, Spanish, and French. This has been one of the most demanding tutoring gigs I've ever done, but I'm really enjoying working at such a level with really brilliant kids.

[MixtecaMike]

You ain't seen homework 'til you've seen Korean (Middle and High school) homework.

[Guy Courchesne]

Mike! How's the trip? where are you now?