The One Where We Ponder About Teaching (And Learning)

Despite how much we like to fool ourselves the educational differences between US Public Schools and Puerto Rican public schools is stark. The only way I've seen that you can get an education similar to that of a good US Public School is by enrolling your kid in a Private School which not a lot people are able to do. I was one of those students that started out in private school when my dad had a good paying job and after was transferred to public school for fourth grade. Apparently the difference was so present that the first time I took the PPAA ( Pruebas puertorriqueñas) when they got my results at the beginning of 5th grade they wanted to bump me up to 6th Grade, 7th if I did well in another test they wanted me to take. But for some godforsaken reason I said no, sometimes I wonder what might have happened if I'd said yes but I don't regret it because if I had said yes I wouldn't have met the amazing best friends I have right now.

For me, during this reading, the quote that most stood out to me amidst the disaster that is the Department of Education in the 50's was this:

"I think I did teach my students a little English, but probably anything they learned was just from having been in contact with a native speaker of the language for a few hours a week."

This statement that Jim Cooper plants is a very important point as it is the most common way that some Puerto Ricans learn English, the majority of my learning English did not occur in course through private school, nor do I credit it to the English classes in Public School thought they were an important part in spelling and grammar. The majority of my English came from spending every summer since I was a kid with my aunt in Miami where she made me speak English if I ever had a question about something at a store or whenever it was needed in social interactions. It goes without question that at first I was petrified, and my aunt did help me in those occasions. And of course she didn't send me out unprepared, the moments of social interaction came after a grueling month of English Class during the summer and her speaking to me in Spanish and me answering in English. It became a survival tool and it got to the point that one summer after I had been transferred to Public School, I came back from Miami speaking better English than some of the teachers at school. I, horrifically, became a model student in my English classes which caused some animosity from my fellow classmates but I took it in stride and helped them out when they did ask for help.

And as always I close with a song, which has been meticulously chosen from the bottomless pit that is my music collection. This one was actually chosen because of an essay I was writing in which I touched the subject about how experiences and mistakes change a person, sometimes not for the best but what matters is that you realize your going down a path that is not the right one for you and you choose to take (or forge) a better path:

\
As you can probably tell from the past 8-ish posts I have thing for Musicals(I am not sorry), anyways here are the lyrics in case you want to follow along.

Goodbye ladies, gents and celestial beings!