Visit to a Local School

Today we visited the Colegio Excelencia Bilingue, a private school that serves kids from preschool (K1-3) through 9th grade. Beginning next year, Mexico has made it mandatory that students begin learning English in preschool. This school, which costs about $2500 pesos ($220 US) a month, teaches students in K-3 (kindergarten) to read first in English, and then Spanish, as it is easier to transition to reading Spanish after learning all of the different vowel souds in English. Spanish vowels only have one pronunciation, always.
Teachers here earn between $550-$800 US dollars a month. Secondary school (grades 7-9) is mandatory for all children, but ends at age 15. Answers have varied widely, but many students do not continue their education into the years we would consider high school in the US. But for the students in this school and most other private schools in Mexico, students almost always continue their schooling up to and including college. There is, however, a severe shortage of available spaces in colleges for many who apply.
Upon arrival today, the students were listening to and singing Michael Jackson! It was classic. Then they serenaded us with theri ABCs. And during our tour, we could hear the older kids cheering loudly as they competed in a schoolwide Spelling Bee. Nellie, a 5th grader, was in tears after she won the contest, which was in English. The experience, I felt, gave us much to appreciate about our educational opportunities in the States. It left me with much admiration for the devoted teachers in Mexico, and their dedicated students, all of whom were incredibly respectful to their visitors from the United States. I wish I had gotten the winning word...