Some words about school from the kids (and me)

I have kept this post open for over a month and I couldn't seem to get the kids to contribute although I finally got them to dictate something to me.  I quote them below ;-)


Renee

I hate it!

Jonathan

I mostly speak to my friends in English.  The kids all have to wear the same uniform.  The people in my class are pretty friendly including my teacher (Mora).  My favorite subjects are lenguaje (language arts in Spanish) and English, though it is very boring.  I play futbol during long recesses after lunch and play taka-taka (foosball).  I also just started on Wednesdays during gym playing beisbal.

Elisa

"We mostly kindof speak Spanisih.  I have one best friend and her name is Rocio.  She only speaks Spanish.  I speak to her in English and she understands me and she speaks to me in Spanish and I understand her.  One of the cool things about school is that you can buy candy.  My Mama gives me 1000 ($2.00) pesos a week to buy snacks and I buy candy at the little store that is next to the lunchroom after lunch or during one of the other recesses.  We get three recesses a day.  I play or buy candy or just hang out.  After school I like to go swimming at Estadio Israelita.  I swim with Taly, Sol, and Leah."


I'll add a bit (OK, a lot) to that from my own observations:

1. Although it is a Jewish school, it is definitely more culturally Jewish than religious.  There is another school in Santiago that is a religious school - Maimonides.  
2. There are three classes in each grade and the kids stay with the same classmates for four years at a time (1st-4th, 5th-8th, and 9th-12th) so the administration (and psychologists) spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best mix.
3. Given that they have the same classmates for four years there is definitely more of a family feeling to the classes.  Because it is Latin America, teachers are often hugging the kids and just being more demonstrative overall.  There is also a lot more yelling going on and a lot more general chaos than in the States which has been a tough adjustment for my kids.
4. Although in the States there is probably an implicit "rule" that moms are most involved in the school, here is it explicit in that the class e-mail list only goes to the moms and the moms are the only ones who get together or volunteer for anything.  I wonder what happens if there is a single dad - maybe it just doesn't happen or maybe a female relative jumps in?
5. The kids have all the "normal" classes like language arts (lenguaje), math, science, social studies, gym, music and art but as a bonus they get English (as in as a second language), Hebrew (the third language?), and torah.  I am still trying to figure out what they learn in torah.  I think that Renee reads parts of the torah (old testament) in Hebrew and Spanish and then discusses relevant sections.  Jonathan just reads stories from the torah.  It looks more like a history class than anything else with discussion of the Jewish holidays thrown in for good measure.  In the high school they also have a Jewish history class.
6. Since my kids did not have much formal Hebrew (at least conversational) training before we came, the older two are in a special program called Academia which is basically a tutoring program for kids who enter the school after first grade.  Hopefully they will come back much improved and Renee will return ready to jump into her Bat Mitzvah studies....maybe.
7. Instead of having a bell or a beep to change classes they have music. To start the day it is always Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  It usually starts playing as I am leaving the building and I feel like dancing and leaping to the music but I hold it in.  Apparently, depending on the season/holiday/whim of some unknown person, the rest of the music changes daily from holiday music (Chilean or Jewish) to the latest pop songs.
8. Instead of the orderly snakes of children changing classes at the kids' primary school in the States, it is absolute chaos with kids ages 6-18 running through the hallways.  I wonder if it will take my kids time to adjust back to the orderliness.
9. As Elisa mentioned, they get four recesses a day.  Everybody gets them and they also can run around if they finish lunch early.  
10. The kids have to buy lunch at school which has been less than satisfying for everybody except Rob who normally gets "pack the lunches" duty at home.  I think that they at least pick at lunch each day but I usually pick them up and they are starving.
11. They do not have any formal religious services (unlike the Jewish school that I went to where you prayed twice a day).  The only time that I have heard about the school chapel was when one of Renee's classmates was going to have his Bar Mitzvah.  It is customary for the classmates, family, and Rabbi to have a "tefillin club" where the boy put tefillin on for the first time, leads a service, and then there is a kiddush.  I am not going to go into tefillin but if you are curious check out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin
12. I usually drop off and pick up the kids.  It is about a 20 minute drive from home if there is no traffic.  There are several schools (collegios - several people have asked me what our colleges are if not schools) that are all in the same area and start at the same time so it is complete chaos around the school.  I try to get there 20 minutes before pick up to find a place to park.  Not everybody goes in to get their kids.  It looks like most kids ages 10 and up have a cell phone and just call their parents to find out where they are parked.  Also, many kids go home on the little school buses, older ones take public transportation, or walk home.
13. For every four grades there is a person (the "inspector") whose job it is to take care of all of the disciplinary actions.  If you are late for school you have to see them.  If you have a detention they oversee it (they use detentions quite liberally here).  If a class is getting unruly they are called in.  I guess that it leaves the Directors (Principals) to work more on the academics.
14. I think that I wrote about this before but gym classes in all of the grades are split by gender and according to Renee the boys get to do all of the fun stuff.
15. Because it is a Jewish school they have four days of vacation coming up for the Sukkot holiday in addition to "Encuentro de Dos Mundos" (Encounter of Two Worlds or Columbus Day) and Evangelico/Día Nacional de las Iglesias Evangélicas y Protestantes (or Reformation Day on 10/31).  Reformation Day has apparently only been a national holiday since 2008.  Seems odd that a Catholic Country would have Reformation Day as a national holiday but there was/is a huge German community here.  I'll have to do a bit more research on that one.

P.S.  I think that Renee perhaps spoke a bit strongly there.  She is starting to make friends and at least some subjects are tolerable ;-)