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San Antonio Express-News
16 de agosto de 1998
©1998: Suzanne Cane y Olvera

EDUCATION IN MEXICO COMPLEX, STRUCTURED

A while back, while I was visiting New York, it occurred to me that I would like to change the format of a philosophy course that I give in English to high school seniors in Mexico City. Rather than continuing to do it as a history of western philosophy, I thought a thematic approach might be refreshing. I was delighted that I had come up with the idea while I was still in the States and in time to look for an appropriate textbook. Usually, I think of these things when it´s too late - like on the airplane as it begins to taxi to the runway. Sound familiar?

My timing was great. I couldn't believe my own brilliance - until I went to the bookstores. A philosophy book for high school? No such bird exists, I was informed. Philosophy is not taught until college, and those who do not make it to college just never get any. I should have known that, but the memory of my own U.S. education had gotten lost in my own current reality.

There are a number of subjects not given in American high schools that are given in Mexico - and not only in expensive, exclusive schools, but on the college preparatory level in general, even in free public institutions.

When my own children entered the Mexican education system, I was so fascinated by how much easier it was for kids to learn to read in Spanish than in English (because it is phonetic) and by how English (a foreign language for them) was taught as early as kindergarten, that I did not give much thought to other differences between their education and mine.

The awareness hit me when a college student I knew mentioned her first experience with the high school in Michigan where her parents had sent her to study. She had just finished the ninth grade in Mexico, and should have entered the U.S. high school as a sophomore. Instead, due to the subjects she had already taken in Mexico (the regular program that everyone takes), she was put into the senior class!

Mexican education is based on the French system, and that makes it quite different from the American version of preparing kids to get into college. Whether those differences are good or bad is for the individual to decide.

Any American-educated parent who moves to Mexico and places his children in a school that observes the Mexican curriculum is astounded to see his children take biology, chemistry and physics in secundaria (the seventh, eighth and ninth grades) or what is still called junior high school in some areas of the United States. Americans back in the States do not seem to believe that kids are capable of such academic complexities that early in life. They are.

In any college preparatory school, not only do the kids continue those sciences, but their graduation requirements include anatomy and calculus as well - not as electives - as requirements!

What is given in those first two years of liberal arts in a U.S. college, the Mexican university student has already taken in his college prep course. Thus, when he enters the university, he can begin his major immediately, and he ends up taking much more in his field for his licenciatura than the American student gets on the bachelor's level. One good example occurs in the field of psychology, in which such courses as psychological testing are given as part of the licenciatura. In the United States, psychology students do not deal with those areas until graduate school. My own daughter turned down an opportunity to do her Master's in psychology in the States precisely for that reason.

I know this has to seem too good to be true. After all, if education is so advanced in Mexico, why is the country not right up there with Canada and Switzerland?
Indeed, there are drawbacks. The greatest, of course, is how few people in Mexico even get to the college preparatory level. The numbers are depressing. Middle school (secundaria) is mandatory, but, in a country of such limited resources, enforcement is difficult. Also, with such low salaries, well-trained teachers are not all that common, and few good people are attracted into the profession.

For those in Mexico who can take advantage of the school system, there are definite limitations: Education tends to be by rote. Fact takes precedence over theory. Memorization is valued more than analysis and evaluation. There is little individuality. Courses are generally required. Electives are limited.

Socially, as well, there tends to be a certain rigidity. High school students in Mexico are not programmed individually. They take the same schedule of courses together, in groups, much as in elementary school. This kind of togetherness provides for a great deal of solidarity, and, for some, the class functions like an extended family. However, to the American way of thinking, such a system cannot allow for any true independence.

American kids have greater opportunities to exercise their individual tastes and talents by taking greater concentrations of art, or music, or writing, or drama, or computer science, rather than solid blocks of academic subjects. Not much of that happens in the Mexican system.

It is a question of emphasis, and, as on so many other cultural issues, Mexico and the United States stand at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Should Mexican education throw in more analysis and creativity? Yes. But, on the other hand, shouldn't American educators take cultural literacy a bit further and get their students to memorize more basic material? They might begin with which side won the Civil War! That kind of information does not seem to be getting through to many kids any more. Facts do need to be analyzed and evaluated, but analysis cannot happen without something to analyze. Without knowing who won the Civil War, how can today's student understand the significance of the federal system and his own place in it?

Indeed, both the United States and Mexico would be a lot better off if they were to meet somewhere in the middle.

And socially? Individuality and independence are important, but a certain amount of common glue to hold society together is not such a bad idea.