V, what you describe here sounds like it could be any students in any country. It sounds very much like students in Canada at the University and College level. Chatty, social, not very concerned with their education or their future. I've been through college twice in my life. The first time I was lazy, never handed in home work, skipped classes.. etc. The second time I was older and more serious and saw that I was surrounded by younger people doing the things that I did the first time around. Personally I think its a product of youth rather than culture.
I have had 2 kids educated for many years in the Uk (private school on scholarships once they reached aged 12). Their primary education was at a state school and they were more advanced at aged 5 and 6 than my son who is educated here.Also sociial skills in the Uk were very important within school.My youngest now attends Ces - he is totally bilingual and getting on great,He gets loads of homework and lots of exams. My ex mother in law is a retired headmistress of a primary school and an education consultant in the Uk- bless her she actually cried and was really really upset when she witnessed how much little ones are pushed here. My middle child is at IAS and although she is doing great the school in my opinion does not stretch her like her private school in UK. Actually I feel very guilty about her education here but just could not bring myself to send her home to boarding school- but I do think she would have a better future if she had stayed on in her school in the UK. Having been through 2 systems with 3 kids I feel certain that the education in the UK was far superior to here.
Great points everyone, particularly interested in Tracey's comments since our own alternative would be education in the UK. Also interested in the views on Senior and Tertiary education here as that's where we are headed, if we are still here come the time. I agree that the kids are pushed too much here, there is lots of homework and some of the stories I've heard about how the teachers at Dani's school treat some of the lesser able kids make me shiver. To use the cliche, kids at this age are 'like sponges' and they'll soak up as much as they can take. With Dani we dont feel that she is under any excess pressure at the moment. She loves to do her homework and sometimes we have to hold her back from doing more than is required. Possibly this attitude is instilled by the teacher, but if we see signs that it is affecting her unduly we'll rethink the whole thing - but for now she loves to learn and we wont stop her. Re the UK I can only speak from my own experience of which I have none as a parent, only as a pupil and experience of my sisters kids. One of my sisters has twins who are 18 months older than Dani - they're in state education and I know they were not as advanced in reading, writing, and maths when I saw them a year ago as Dani is now and it was all one language. When I was at school, in the Jurassic period, we didnt even start to learn another language until 12. In the UK there are good schools and bad schools, like anywhere. There is no way we would be able to afford to go private in the UK and where we lived the state schools were not good. So I'm just trying to compare where Dani would be now had we stayed in the UK to where she is now we are in Mexico. I'm 110% sure she is far ahead of her peer group in the school she would have gone to in Nottingham had we still lived there. For now we are really happy with her progress. I do feel that in years ahead, as she prepares for a career, that Cancun is probably not the best place for her Senior and (should she choose it) Tertiary education. And I wish they'd stop teaching her American English. A quarter is one fourth of something, not a bloody coin!
Steve - Wow, Dani seems pretty advanced! I wish I had learned another language so early. Would have made things a lot easier. I think you're right... there are good and bad schools anywhere. I think Cancun has great schools (including universities!). My complaints would be more about some of the students than the education itself. I will say that the more "focused" kids at my university here generally came from private schools.
Steve - Let Dani be your guide. Pay attention to her needs and you will know what moves to make regarding her education. Why my daughter was 5 I had her in a private kindergarten, at the end of the year lots of other moms told me they were going to keep their kids back and let them repeat kindergarten. They felt their kids would have an advantage going into first grade being a little older. My daughter was raring to go, it would have made me sick to hold her back academically. She would have been bored silly. So we sent her on to first grade, and she was one of the younger kids in the class. But academically she was ready. I think that socially being the youngest kid in the class is hard, but then so is being the tallest kid in the class (which she also usually is). But fundamentally I felt that if she was ready academically then it would be crazy to hold her back. And now my daughter is doing great and I have no regrets about how we've handled her education...well except for those two years she spent in a crappy public school in the US, they sucked... I think you have to go with what your gut says on this stuff. You know your kid, you know what's good for her. Just make sure that if you see a move across the pond coming that you help her prepare for it amap. Transitions are hard.
I've got lots of quarters stashed away, and not one of them has any blood on it. Thank you very much.
A quarter is exactly that, one quarter of a dollar. The English should be very aware of quarters after all the drawing and quartering they did :icon_confused:. Bet you those had some blood on them.
So how many parts of a dollar is a nickel or a dime? For N words the Nickel is always there in the pics she has to colour in, for D words the Dime is always there. It's a little hard to explain to a 5 yr old that Nickel is really a metal and a Dime is really a chocolate bar
Maturity, culture 4bidden, it seems to me it could be, too, but I've taught at the university level in the states and in various other countries. The students here, in Cancun, studying at the state university where I teach, seem less mature, and less well prepared by the education they've received, to this point, than those I've dealt with, elsewhere. It's my belief that the cultural environment in which education is taking place profoundly impacts the educational process, and with it, the outcomes. How else do you explain Gringation's personal observations that, although a good education was being offered at her university, few availed themselves of it. While this may be the case in many university settings around the world, it is not universal, and many universities are full of students who work hard, and learn enough to challenge their professors to keep ahead of them, with new and exciting projects and ideas. [I will repeat, just so I'm not misunderstood: Mexico has many well educated people; and, ambitious young people seeking an education. In those cases, it seems to me, personal ambition, or a family environment established by the parents- in which a high value was placed on education- has worked to overcome whatever cultural influences would have pushed them the other direction; furthermore, there are a good many professional educators in Mexico, working within this environment, who are, at great effort, pushing the standards higher.]
If I remember my US history (big if) nickels used to be made from nickel. Don't teach her about candy bars, they are bad for her.
