Learning, Spanish-Style
August is almost over and the recuperation exams are nearly here. This is the last week of studying for those who want to recuperate the subjects they failed in June. Some have it more difficult than others. There are those who, after doing nothing all year, expect in two months to learn enough to pass maybe five or six subjects at the beginning of September. And who also think they will enjoy summer at the same time.
The Spanish system of education is different. (What isn't, in Spain?) To be promoted from one grade to another, you cannot have failed more than two subjects. If, at the end of June, you have failed anything, you can recuperate that subject at the beginning of September in a species of final exam. If you have failed up to two subjects and don't recuperate them in September, you can recuperate them in January. So, if you fail math in June and September, you go on to the next grade, where you will study that grade's math. The year you failed you study on your own time and have another exam in January to get it out of the way. If you still fail it then, it continues as a failed subject you still need to recuperate. One summer, someone came to me for help in English who had to recuperate three years of English. Second, third, and fourth of compulsory secondary education (ESO). She needed to pass at least one exam to get her secondary eduation title. She had simply failed one year after another, and since she had never failed more than two subjects, she kept being promoted to the next grade. She could get her title with two failed subjects, but not three. In the end she passed the exams for second and third year English, but fourth was too difficult for her.
The problem is that out of a class of maybe twenty-seven, twenty-four will need to recuperate something in September. One year my daughter and I passed by her high school on one of the first days of September and thought maybe the school calendar had been changed and we hadn't heard anything about it. There were so many kids it looked like the first day of school except for the lack of buses. I think more than anything that failing a subject has to do with parental expectations and learning methods. Parents seem to expect the teachers to put knowledge into their children's heads in a magical sort of way. Too many parents never go to talk with their children's teachers to find out what is being taught and how to reinforce that learning at home. It's as if once their child is home from school the only link to school is the homework they must finish. Everything else is fun time. Primary school tends to be easy and accommodating. Even if a child really doesn't know or understand the simple English, for example, that is taught in school, he gets a good grade and praise for trying. So they trip along the nine years of preschool and primary in a fog of laudatory notes of good effort until they reach first of ESO when they're twelve. There they run into the wall that arises out of the fog with a resounding thump. Partly because they have not been prepared to be another name sitting at a desk with other strangers to the teacher. Partly because now there begins another turn of the screw in rote learning.
Education in Spain is based on rote learning. Children must memorize and learn facts that they will then have to spit out on the exams. In the first years of preschool and primary they are also taught to observe the world around them, but little else. Almost never are they taught how to relate what they learn in class with real life and they really are never taught to think unless they happen to have an exceptional teacher. When they reach secondary the rote continues. They learn to make outlines and memorize them. They are taught literature, but rarely do they have to read any of the books they discuss. And what they discuss is simply the author's biography, what he was influenced by, and his intention in some of the different books he wrote. There is no real discussion of ideas, and they are never expected to have ideas of their own on what they learn. And that is repeated in most subjects.
Some do well in this situation, others don't. Unfortunately, there is no alternate form of teaching. If you can't memorize well, that's your problem. Our daughter had no problem memorizing, but she found it boring. We had taught her to think at home, and she loved tackling new information by reading, thinking, and discussing it. She wanted to learn by thinking and understanding, but the system expected her to memorize. In the last two, non-compulsory years of secondary school, she was admitted to a special program where the learning was advanced. Though it was difficult and challenging, she preferred it because they discussed ideas in the different classes and memorization was almost non-existent.
Others do better with visual or aural learning and have difficulties memorizing. Someone who comes to me for help in English is like that. She already learned to speak English a long time ago. She has little problem understanding a simple conversation, but she has difficulties writing with correct spelling and grammar. Unfortunately, in ESO English teaching is mostly spelling and grammar. The most she can do in this system is peg along and spend extra time studying to memorize enough to get a passing grade, at least.
Unfortunately, in every overhaul the education system has had, these issues have never been addressed. There's the usual hand-wringing of "Our children are failing and leaving school. We must stop this!". And then the government in charge will tweak the system, adding more subjects here, taking subjects out there, making children decide even earlier what they want to do with their lives, creating more exams to study and memorize for, but never will they do anything to address the different forms of learning there are in a diverse student body. Flexibility in education remains a pipe dream.
The Spanish system of education is different. (What isn't, in Spain?) To be promoted from one grade to another, you cannot have failed more than two subjects. If, at the end of June, you have failed anything, you can recuperate that subject at the beginning of September in a species of final exam. If you have failed up to two subjects and don't recuperate them in September, you can recuperate them in January. So, if you fail math in June and September, you go on to the next grade, where you will study that grade's math. The year you failed you study on your own time and have another exam in January to get it out of the way. If you still fail it then, it continues as a failed subject you still need to recuperate. One summer, someone came to me for help in English who had to recuperate three years of English. Second, third, and fourth of compulsory secondary education (ESO). She needed to pass at least one exam to get her secondary eduation title. She had simply failed one year after another, and since she had never failed more than two subjects, she kept being promoted to the next grade. She could get her title with two failed subjects, but not three. In the end she passed the exams for second and third year English, but fourth was too difficult for her.
The problem is that out of a class of maybe twenty-seven, twenty-four will need to recuperate something in September. One year my daughter and I passed by her high school on one of the first days of September and thought maybe the school calendar had been changed and we hadn't heard anything about it. There were so many kids it looked like the first day of school except for the lack of buses. I think more than anything that failing a subject has to do with parental expectations and learning methods. Parents seem to expect the teachers to put knowledge into their children's heads in a magical sort of way. Too many parents never go to talk with their children's teachers to find out what is being taught and how to reinforce that learning at home. It's as if once their child is home from school the only link to school is the homework they must finish. Everything else is fun time. Primary school tends to be easy and accommodating. Even if a child really doesn't know or understand the simple English, for example, that is taught in school, he gets a good grade and praise for trying. So they trip along the nine years of preschool and primary in a fog of laudatory notes of good effort until they reach first of ESO when they're twelve. There they run into the wall that arises out of the fog with a resounding thump. Partly because they have not been prepared to be another name sitting at a desk with other strangers to the teacher. Partly because now there begins another turn of the screw in rote learning.
Education in Spain is based on rote learning. Children must memorize and learn facts that they will then have to spit out on the exams. In the first years of preschool and primary they are also taught to observe the world around them, but little else. Almost never are they taught how to relate what they learn in class with real life and they really are never taught to think unless they happen to have an exceptional teacher. When they reach secondary the rote continues. They learn to make outlines and memorize them. They are taught literature, but rarely do they have to read any of the books they discuss. And what they discuss is simply the author's biography, what he was influenced by, and his intention in some of the different books he wrote. There is no real discussion of ideas, and they are never expected to have ideas of their own on what they learn. And that is repeated in most subjects.
Some do well in this situation, others don't. Unfortunately, there is no alternate form of teaching. If you can't memorize well, that's your problem. Our daughter had no problem memorizing, but she found it boring. We had taught her to think at home, and she loved tackling new information by reading, thinking, and discussing it. She wanted to learn by thinking and understanding, but the system expected her to memorize. In the last two, non-compulsory years of secondary school, she was admitted to a special program where the learning was advanced. Though it was difficult and challenging, she preferred it because they discussed ideas in the different classes and memorization was almost non-existent.
Others do better with visual or aural learning and have difficulties memorizing. Someone who comes to me for help in English is like that. She already learned to speak English a long time ago. She has little problem understanding a simple conversation, but she has difficulties writing with correct spelling and grammar. Unfortunately, in ESO English teaching is mostly spelling and grammar. The most she can do in this system is peg along and spend extra time studying to memorize enough to get a passing grade, at least.
Unfortunately, in every overhaul the education system has had, these issues have never been addressed. There's the usual hand-wringing of "Our children are failing and leaving school. We must stop this!". And then the government in charge will tweak the system, adding more subjects here, taking subjects out there, making children decide even earlier what they want to do with their lives, creating more exams to study and memorize for, but never will they do anything to address the different forms of learning there are in a diverse student body. Flexibility in education remains a pipe dream.
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