Day #13, August 7

Mirian picked me up at the hotel at 9:30 and we went to visit a school in a villa (areas of extreme poverty where people are allowed to build temporary dwellings). This villa was made up of families from the Toba or Qom nation. This is an aboriginal group native to the Parana region. Mirian brought me to this school because she knew that I was interested in bilingual education. This school was attempting to do bilingual education with the Toba children – Toba/Castellano.
When we arrived to the school the children were dismissing. There was no water and therefore the classes had to be canceled. Instead of observing in classrooms I was able to meet with the faculty. This was actually more informative. I shared what my school was like and concerns my staff had in working with our families and they did the same.

The faculty in general was quite young and very committed to serving the Toba children. One teacher, Javier, was a native Qom speaker and also served as the translator for the school. He explained how there was distrust of the school by the Qom parents, but this was decreasing. The distrust is related to lingering discrimination toward the people by criollo Argentinos. If the school summoned the parents for any problem, they would pull their child out of school so as to not be a problem.

Evangelical protestant churches have been successful in working with the Qom. Their success started when they were able to translate the Bible into the Qom language. The school works with the churches and other community agencies in educating families.
Javier took us to a neighboring secundaria, or high school. I met the principal and a few students and looked in classrooms. Both schools were in very poor condition and had very few resources, but there was a real sense of hope and wanting to continue the struggle in the staff that I met in both schools. I wanted to walk through the community with Javier but Mirian wouldn’t let me. We didn’t have time and she didn’t know how she would explain it to the Fulbright Commission if something happened to me.

We drove to Mirian’s school, Escuela 147 Provincia de Entre Rios. It is a very nice building located in what seemed to be a middle class neighborhood. I greeted the students as they began the afternoon shift and then spent some time visiting classrooms. This school has many more resources than Marcela’s school, beginning with 8computers connected to the internet. The teachers I observed seemed to be more creative in their pedagogy, also.

We next drove to the "sindicato" where a group of about 10 normal and university professors wanted to meet with me to discuss the Chicago education system. It was a great conversation and I was disappointed when Mirian had to cut it short so that we could get to our next stop. I really hope we will be able to continue this conversation at some point.

Mirian took me to San Jose, a Catholic school for boys run by the Salesian priests. We arrived just in time for me to greet the boys on the patio as they were being dismissed for the weekend. Mirian had taught at the school the first 13 years of her career. She was fired because she was sympathizing with the public school union in their strike and encouraging her colleagues to do the same. She still is fond of the school.

We were given a tour of the huge facility. The students not only take academic courses but also participate in vocational trade workshops. We saw huge carpentry workshops and tool and dye workshops. I was also shown the church and crypt by the pastor and his sister who was a former vice principal of the school (one of the administrators who fired Mirian).

After the tour, there was a small reception for us with a group of retired teachers who continue to meet. We had coffee and cake and I was presented with a number of gifts from the school.
We drove to Mirian’s house on the edge of the city. Victor was grilling meat for our dinner. I met their two children, Carolina (23 years old) and Guido (16 years old). We had a delicious meal together and I took a cab back to my hotel.