The kids’ school is a constant source of pride, entertainment, and frustration.
The pride comes from the fact that Max and Helen are both doing so well. The biggest challenge has been the language, but there’s also just school. Max is studying Mexican history, world geography, anatomy, geometry, and other subjects. Helen is learning to read and write (in cursive!), how plants grow, how to measure the perimeter of shapes, how to tie her shoes, and more. Each is excelling in his and her respective studies.
They also have made friends. The other day, when Natalie’s mother, Mary, sat in the schoolyard with Helen after school, she said it was like being with a rock star. Nearly every kid that walked by either shouted “Helen!” or came over to pat her on the head. At one point, a group of boys in Helen’s class that was playing soccer on the rooftop field ran to the fence to yell down to Helen. Then, after one of them scored, he ran back to the fence to make sure Helen knew the goal was his.
The entertainment we derive from the school results from the many things that are new to us or that take us by surprise. I still get a kick out of seeing the kids in their uniforms. Max tells funny stories about the kinds of things that land kids in trouble. Sometimes the homework assignments, or the timing of the assignments, are amusing. For example, today we found out that Helen needs to bring three toilet paper rolls to school tomorrow. Do they assume people have empty rolls sitting around, or are we supposed to take the paper off? (The assumption may be correct. Although we had no stored rolls, our neighbor had a bag full, which she saves for school projects.)
The frustration often is the flip side of what is entertaining. Depending on our mood, something that is entertaining one day might be very frustrating on a different day. For example, three weeks ago Max had a Spanish dictation quiz. The teacher read sentences to the class that they had to write down. At the end of the day, the teacher returned the quizzes with the mistakes circled, and told the students to correct them that night. Max asked how he could fix his mistakes without knowing the correct sentences. The teacher just shrugged and told him he would be graded on the corrections. So that evening, Max, Natalie, and I had fun reconstructing sentences from the garbled phonetic interpretations Max had written during the quiz. We were entertained, but it would have been frustrating if there had been a lot of other work that night.
The most consistent source of frustration is understanding Max’s homework assignments -- not the substance of the work, but knowing what the assignment is. Several times Max has not known about an assignment until it is due. At first it was because nobody told him about projects assigned before he arrived. Now it happens when Max does not understand the assignment when it is given, and he either does not ask for clarification or the clarification is not very clear. I can attest to the latter, since several times I have tried to get clarification only to walk away more confused.
Sometimes we get frustrated over things that have nothing to do with the language gap. For example, yesterday everybody in Max’s class was supposed to bring something to school that is very special. The only rules were no pets and no gold. Max brought a wonderful scrapbook with notes and pictures from his classmates and teachers at home. He wanted to share it with his class here, but it turns out it was not for show and tell. Instead, each kid exchanged his or her item with another child, who will take care of it for two weeks – including taking it out to recess and lunch, and taking it home every night. Natalie and I worried that the scrapbook is too fragile (and too special) to be transported around for two weeks, so we had Max retrieve the scrapbook and give his partner something else instead. But that is against the rules. Today the school psychologist, who is running the project, criticized Max and about five other kids in front of the class for not being good participants.
I have no problem with the concept of the project -- instill a sense of trust and responsibility in classmates -- but they could have given the parents a heads up. We might have helped our children pick something appropriate for the task. I hate to think what will happen to a friendship, or to somebody’s self-confidence, if a one-of-a-kind item, like the scrapbook, is misplaced or broken. (Isn’t this assignment usually done with an egg?) To be sure, Max did not like being accused of not participating, but he will get over it. In fact, he is relieved, since originally he was going to bring his soccer cleats, which might have been subjected to the same two-week confiscation. For me and Natalie, it is the kind of frustrating experience that, we think, has more to do with the school than with the fact that it is in Mexico.
In any event, here are some pictures from the last few weeks at school. You decide whether they belong in the “pride,” “entertainment,” or “frustration” column. Some belong in more than one column.
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"Welcome to the (preschool) Science Fair." Grandparents welcome! |
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Conducting an experiment with Helen at the science fair. Proving that water is heavier than oil. |
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The Hello Kitty doll that is Max's charge for the next two weeks. |

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List of subjects for parent presentations to Max's class. It was only after Max's teacher finished explaining the project and left the room that I understood parents, not students, make the presentations. I was not alone in the misunderstanding. |
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Me and another parent on the day of our presentation, with the projected image of Max's teacher. Our theme was "cultural diversity." We compared Max's class at home, where the students' grandparents come from 18 different countries and 14 states (thanks everyone for sending the information!), to his class here, where the majority of the Mexican students' grandparents come from Mexico, and a few come from Spain. We talked about how rich Oaxaca is in cultural diversity, even though there is not a lot of geographical diversity. |
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Max and two other boys forced to miss part of P.E. because they did not pass uniform inspection. |
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Max's infraction: dirty shoelaces. |

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Helen was part of the honor guard at last week's Homenaje, which was a special treat. Waving, however, is not part of the official salute. |

Helen's solution to stop waving.
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Max in his classroom. He is directly under the world map on the left side. |
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Max, looking like a kid who's Dad pulls out a camera after making a presentation to the class. |
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The rooftop soccer field where some of Helen's admirers play. |
On a completely different subject, this weekend we are going to stay in an ecotourism cabin in the town of Benito Juarez. It is in the mountains about an hour outside of Oaxaca. Looking forward to visiting one of the hundreds of pueblos that surround the city. --Harrison