Again (education in the DR)

Rick Snyder · Jan 25, 2005

An article in the Listin Diario today.
El Calendario Escolar says the schools must impart 1,258 hours of instruction to those students in the courses b?sico and inicial and 1,290 hours for those students in the bachillerato.

The education omnipotents have determined that there are 9 months of classes this year and each month has 22 days and this equates to 198 days of classes. These 1,258 hours are strictly for teaching and do not count for recess or eating. The public schools hardly receive, in their morning session, classes from 9:15 to 11:30 (2 ? hours) and the afternoon session from 2:00 till 5:30 (3 ? hours) and these timeframes include recess and meals. The Calendario Escolar has also given the schools 12 vacation days this year which brings the 198 days down to 186 days of instruction this year. Now let?s see?? 1,258 hours of instruction into 198 days (simple math 1258 divided by 198) and the students should be getting 6 ? hours of instruction a day. The article goes on to explain that even though the government is investing thousands of millions of pesos into the school system the Secretary of Education is very concerned about the quality of teaching and learning if the students are receiving less then 3 hours of instruction daily (duuuuuuuuh). The S of E also said that a budgetary controled study should be conducted by organizations such as the (EDUCA) and (ADP) to determine the reason the students are losing instruction hours and to take corrective steps to the problem.

It is interesting to note that in the Listin Diario last week there was an article in which the government said that for every 100 students only 5 receive their high school diploma. THAT?S A 95% DROPOUT RATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those bleeding hearts out there who seem to think that more meals or more classrooms is what is needed all have your heads in the sand. It?s the QUALITY of the education. To see an example of this all you need to do is ask people younger than 30 to recite the alphabet to you. If you don?t know the order that the letters are arranged then how can you effectively use items like a dictionary, phonebook or computer to name a few. This is only one example of the lack of quality in education but one that I feel is very basic and essential for better learning.

It has been mentioned a few times by other posters and I?m beginning to believe it also, (IT IS A LOT EASIER TO GOVERN AN IGNORANT POPULACE)

Pib · Jan 25, 2005

Well, I have bad news for you. I can't recite the alphabet (don't even know if it is in the school programs as I skipped my first two years of schooling), but I sure as hell can speak Spanish. Furthermore, the Spanish alphabet changed after I left school, and I am most times confused as to which letters were taken out and which were left. This does not impair me in any way at speaking, understanding and writing my language. Spanish is not English; they don't have to be taught the same way.

Yes, better education, teachers who are better prepared are needed (well, duh!). But school meals has a lot of importance when a lot of these kids who attend public schools show up for classes 'con el estomago en pijamas'. I believe I have spent more time than you in public schools in the DR, been that I am the daughter of someone with 37 years as teacher/principal (someone who started as profesora rural) and also because for the last 5 years of my education my school was turned into a public school. And yes, kids in public schools (not mine though) show up at school without having put anything in their stomachs, my mom had kids fainting in class.

I have seen the system, I have heard my mom complains, I have known some of the worst teachers possible (some were my mom's workmates) and I have known the best teachers one can possibly imagine. There is little more hours of study can do when a teacher is given so little resources that they have to buy chalk out of their miserable salaries.

Trust me, my anger is not directed at you; it just seems to me that whatever came up with that would be the kind of doctor who would use a band-aid to stop a major hemorrhage.

Rick Snyder · Jan 25, 2005

Here we go with the myth again

Sorry Pib I didn?t mean to upset you and I agree with you in that the children attending school should not have to do so on an empty stomach. At the same time I do not believe it is the public schools responsibility to feed the masses. So where does the fault of this problem lay and what should be done about it I don?t even want to begin to get into but the fact remains that if you feed all the children all you will end up with is well fed uneducated children. If you build more classrooms you end up with well roomed uneducated children. The money that the government is spending must be better programmed.

Unless you left school in the year 1802 the alphabet hasn?t changed and I think that is the location of one of the problems. Who started this myth that the alphabet changed? The Spanish alphabet has had 29 letters in it since 1803 and still has 29 letters. If you are unsure then ask a few Dominican teachers and let me know what they tell you as I have already done that and I would be interested to know if their responses are the same to you. How can the uneducated and misinformed teach properly. You don?t need to know any of the letters of the alphabet to speak Spanish as my father-in-law is a classic example of this because he can?t read or write but he sure can speak Spanish.

Let us suppose for a moment that you are reading a newspaper and you come across the word (indocto) and you don?t know what it means and at the same time you don?t know the order of the letters in the alphabet nor that the letter (i) is the 10th letter of the alphabet just after the (h) and right before the (j). How long to find the (i) section in the dictionary? Now you need to find the (in) within the (i) section, then the (ind) etc. etc. Learning to recite the alphabet is important for learning. There is also the fact that if you can recite the Spanish alphabet you automatically learn the sound every letter makes in its pronunciation except for the letter (w) so doesn?t it stand to reason that learning to recite the alphabet serves some useful purposes and just might help as everything to date sure isn?t working?

thepiper · Jan 26, 2005

When we venture outside our field of knowledge

"This Spanish variant of the universal Latin alphabet has been used by the Academy since 1803 (sixth edition of the Academic Dictionary) in the preparation of all its alphabetical lists. Nevertheless, at the Tenth Congress of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, held in 1994, it was agreed to adopt for academic dictionaries, at the request of various international organizations, the universal Latin alphabetical order, in which the ch and the ll are not considered independent letters. As a result, these two letters come to be alphabetized in the places which correspond to them within the letter C (between -cg- and -ci-) and within the letter L (between -lk- and -lm-), respectively"

Maybe this so pib if you were to go back to school in dr you would learn to read and write with a different alphabet.

Rick Snyder · Jan 26, 2005

All well and good but.........

This is all well and good in the alphabetisation of words but the fact is, according to the RAE, 29 letters are in the alphabet and the letters cha and elle still exist and are a part thereof. Therefore any variance to this is not Spanish and you either teach correctly or you invent a new language. Using the basic teaching book NACHO 2, printed here in the DR, it explains that the ch and ll are a part of the alphabet and the letter ch, pronounced che makes the che sound and the letter c makes 2 sounds, the c suave (s) and the c fuerte (k). If you were to do away with the letter ch then you would have to teach that the letter c makes 3 sounds. Why reinvent the wheel?

QUOTE

ABECEDARIO. 1. Para designar la serie ordenada de las letras con que se representan los sonidos de una lengua, pueden usarse indistintamente en espa?ol los t?rminos abecedario y alfabeto (del lat. abecedarium y alphabetum, respectivamente). El primer t?rmino est? formado a partir del nombre de las cuatro primeras letras de la serie latina (a, be, ce, de), y el segundo, a partir del nombre de las dos primeras de la serie griega (alfa, beta). Aunque son ambos v?lidos, el nombre alfabeto es el de uso m?s general y el que ha dado lugar a derivados: alfab?tico, alfabetizaci?n, analfabeto, etc.
2. Como las dem?s lenguas rom?nicas, el espa?ol se sirvi? b?sicamente desde sus or?genes de la serie alfab?tica latina, que fue adaptada y completada a lo largo de los siglos. As?, el abecedario espa?ol est? hoy formado por las veintinueve letras siguientes: a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ?, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z (? a, b, c, etc.).
3. Esta variante espa?ola del alfabeto latino universal ha sido utilizada por la Academia desde 1803 (cuarta edici?n del Diccionario acad?mico) en la confecci?n de todas sus listas alfab?ticas. Desde esa fecha, la ch y la ll, que en realidad son d?grafos, es decir, signos gr?ficos compuestos de dos letras, pasaron a considerarse convencionalmente letras del abecedario por el hecho de representar, cada uno de ellos, un solo sonido. No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociaci?n de Academias de la Lengua Espa?ola, celebrado en 1994, se acord? adoptar, a petici?n de varios organismos internacionales, el orden alfab?tico latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll no se consideran letras independientes. En consecuencia, las palabras que comienzan por estas dos letras, o que las contienen, pasan a alfabetizarse en los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la c y dentro de la l, respectivamente. Esta reforma afecta ?nicamente al proceso de ordenaci?n alfab?tica de las palabras, no a la composici?n del abecedario, del que los d?grafos ch y ll siguen formando parte.
4. Mientras que los d?grafos ch y ll son las ?nicas graf?as que representan, respectivamente, los sonidos /ch/ y /ll/, el sonido que representa el d?grafo rr es el mismo que el representado por la r en posici?n inicial de palabra o precedida de las consonantes n, l o s (? r, 2 y 3). Este solapamiento explica que, a diferencia de la ch y la ll, la rr no se haya considerado nunca una de las letras del alfabeto.
Real Academia Espa?ola ? Todos los derechos reservados

ch.

1. f. D?grafo que, por representar un solo sonido conson?ntico de articulaci?n africada, palatal y sorda, como en mucho o noche, es considerado desde 1803 cuarta letra del abecedario espa?ol. Su nombre es che.
ORTOGR. En la escritura es inseparable.

Real Academia Espa?ola ? Todos los derechos reservados
ll.

1. f. D?grafo que, por representar un solo fonema conson?ntico de articulaci?n tradicionalmente lateral y palatal, es considerado desde 1803 decimocuarta letra del abecedario espa?ol. Su nombre es elle. En gran parte de los pa?ses y regiones hisp?nicos se pronuncia como y, con salida central del aire, y con sus mismas variaciones de articulaci?n.
ORTOGR. En la escritura es inseparable.

Real Academia Espa?ola ? Todos los derechos reservados

Pib · Jan 26, 2005

Well, the alphabet didn't change, it was only rendered a bit useless for people who grew up looking for ch and ll in the dictionary. So, it wouldn't have made me any good using newer dictionaries.

I can use a dictionary alright (of which I own quite a few, in various languages, thank you very much), I can find my way alright even if I have to think for a few seconds to recite the alphabet. As I said, not having recited the alphabet in school did not impair my learning of the language. I am not an expert (duh!) but I am damn proud of my proficiency. I think you are just paying too much attention to minor things and angels dancing on the head of a pin.

As for school breakfast: if we lived in a perfect world children wouldn't arrive at school without eating anything and they would go straight to learning, as it is they don't, so what do we do? You work with what you have, and we have kids that CANNOT pay attention because their stomachs are empty.

Marianopolita · Jan 26, 2005

There are many problems beyond the alphabet

Not only an empty stomach is a problem but what about all the other problematic factors: like "butacas", lack of supplies, old material etc. The public education system in the DR is in what I call a critical state and I personally am not worried about the alphabet. All the others obstacles need to be remedied first to foster productive learning. If the environment or medium in which students learn is not conducive to "productive" learning, the alphabet is irrelevant. I am speaking from personal experience. Based on the numerous articles that I continuously read in el Listin Diario there are problems in many areas and the key factors in my opinion are: incompetent educators, poorly paid educators, high absenteeism, lack of supplies and the curriculum itself. These areas need to be corrected first and revamped if students have a chance at getting a semi-decent education. I fear for the current and upcoming generation.

-Lesley D-

Pib · Jan 26, 2005

Lesley D said:
Not only an empty stomach is a problem but what about all the other problematic factors: like "butacas", lack of supplies, old material etc. The public education system in the DR is in what I call a critical state and I personally am not worried about the alphabet. All the others obstacles need to be remedied first to foster productive learning. If the environment or medium in which students learn is not conducive to "productive" learning, the alphabet is irrelevant. I am speaking from personal experience. Based on the numerous articles that I continuously read in el Listin Diario there are problems in many areas and the key factors in my opinion are: incompetent educators, poorly paid educators, high absenteeism, lack of supplies and the curriculum itself. These areas need to be corrected first and revamped if students have a chance at getting a semi-decent education. I fear for the current and upcoming generation.

-Lesley D-

Thank you for saying what I wanted to say but you said better.

Rick Snyder · Jan 26, 2005

I agree but.........

There are indeed many problems beyond the alphabet and we all seem to agree on that fact but what to do about the problems is where they problem is. I remember reading a while back in the DR1 news about the warehouse up north that was found with either several hundreds or thousands of ?batacas? stored away. Did they ever get distributed? No follow up. I remember reading about the school administrator that had her dog on the payroll as a teacher. Was the dog taken off the payroll? No follow up. There was the reporting about all the janitors that were on the payrolls as teachers. Where they taken off the payroll, fired or prosecuted? No follow up. I teach English in a public school at night here in El Seybo and I arrive at the school at 6:30 and sit on my motor waiting for my students and watch the afternoon janitor team leave with many bags of rolls and many cartons of milk under their arms. Is this maybe the food that all of you are talking about? Do you think these fine outstanding janitors are giving this food to students in another schools maybe? Is the school overstating their enrollment in order to receive more food daily in order to feed the whole town or is it possible that there are children not being feed in order to feed other people not enrolled in the public school system? I can almost guarantee you that the school administrator was always crying the blues about her teachers not making enough money as her and her dog got their monthly check. I can also guarantee you that if food is being stolen in 1 school in El Seybo it?s being stolen from a lot of other schools here and elsewhere. Soooooooooooooooooooo, while you cry about the way things are and should be why not incorporate teaching the alphabet to the preschoolers as it might help in the long run, can?t hurt and doesn?t cost anything. I have also proven that it can be done in ONE hour and it stays in the mind of the child forever!!

Marianopolita · Jan 27, 2005

My latest concern...

Rick...usted es tenaz... (persistent) but that's okay because there are one or more aspects that worry everyone concerned about the public school system in the DR. Since you are so persistent about the alphabet I decided to go through some books I bought in Panama on one of my last trips there. I bought some primary school education textbooks books at a store for teachers and students which are used in the classroom. One book I particularly like is called Nuestra Lengua 3 Educaci?n Primaria (Casa Editorial Santillana). I would say the book is suitable for grades 5 & 6. The book has twenty- four chapters and learning how to use a dictionary is introduced and covered in four subsequent chapters. In the first lesson (Uso del Diccionario I) the students learn "el orden alfab?tico" so to prove your point about it's usefulness- you are correct. After working through the various "talleres de la lengua" in the last chapter the students learn how to search for words in a dictionary. Now whether Panamanian students have an advantage over Dominican students cannot be determined by this one example but I know some teachers there and I will ask them in what grade do the students learn to recite the alphabet (if they do) and if they find it effective. If the responses I receive are valuable I will post them or send you a PM.

Having said this the alphabet still does not bother me as much as a recent article I read in el Caribe. The Secretary of Education, Alejandrina Germ?n wants to move forward with bilingual education in seventeen public schools all in tourists areas. However, the problems she is facing include: finding quality teachers, competent bilingual teachers, teachers who understand grammar etc. What I don't understand is for students to learn a second language well, they have to be very strong grammatically in their own language and speak well. Now knowing the problems, poor educational standards and the drop out rate, shouldn't Alejandrina be concerned about resolving the existing issues as mentioned in my previous post rather than introducing bilingual programs? How would students benefit from English when they are weak in Spanish? I find this very disturbing and once again it opens the doors to more incompetence on the part of teachers. Alejandrina has already indicated her challenges in finding good language teachers therefore who are the teachers that will be teaching these students?

-Lesley D-

======================

Here is a bit of the article:

Educaci?n
La educaci?n biling?e, ante primeros escollos
Faltan profesores, mientras experto cree no es prioridad
Por Itania Mar?a / El Caribe
Lunes 10 de enero del 2005 actualizado a las 12:00 AM

Para salir adelante con la educaci?n biling?e para el nivel inicial y como segundo idioma para los estudiantes de b?sica y bachillerato, la Secretar?a de Educaci?n enfrenta un gran escollo: la falta de profesores cualificados.

Y la propia titular, Alejandrina Germ?n, lo admite: ?Hay (profesores especializados) pero la mayor?a est?n en instituciones privadas y algunos institutos... tenemos que ver c?mo les damos el incentivo suficiente para que vengan para ac?.

En entrevista para El Caribe, Germ?n coment? que el ?rea de Curr?culo (al que pertenece el departamento de Ingl?s de la Secretar?a) hace una propuesta ?pero creo que para poder comenzar un programa biling?e tendremos que dedicarle un presupuesto especial a esas escuelas?.

Y agrega: ?Necesitamos buenos profesores, con capacidad para innovar, que hayan estudiado Ling??stica, que sepan de verdad c?mo se aprende un idioma y que podamos trascender los m?todos tradicionales de ense?ar un idioma?.

Y como para convencerse, dice: ?tenemos el reto; lo vamos a lanzar en 17 escuelas y lo vamos a hacer bien?. Estas escuelas pertenecen, en su mayor?a, a las regionales de Puerto Plata, Hig?ey y La Romana, cuyo com?n denominador es el turismo.

Gist translation:

Bilingual Education Facing Initial Difficulties

The Secretary of Education Alejandrina Germ?n faces the difficulty of finding qualified teachers for the primary and high school bilingual programs.

In an interview with El Caribe Germ?n said: ?There are qualified teachers but the majority teach in private schools and institutes?. Germ?n also stated that to start the bilingual program a special budget must be granted to the schools?.

Per Alejandrina Germ?n good teachers are needed who can innovate, that have studied Linguistics, who really understand how language is learned and to whom we can extend traditional teaching methods of learning a language.

The program will be launched in seventeen schools mostly in the tourist areas, which include Puerto Plata, Higuey and La Romana.

Pib · Jan 27, 2005

Rick Snyder: 'Well yes, you have a brain tumor, take this aspirine and you'll get better'

Rick, been able to recite the alphabet doesn't make a child any more literate than been able to say the Lord's Prayer makes one a theologian.

The problems of the Dominican education system are so deep that placing any more importance on learning to recite the alphabet is, well, like an aspirin to a cancer patient. The alphabet is taught in Dominican schools (according to my mom), and I was using a dictionary in school in third grade, but heck, if all the Dominicans you know forgot it then it says a lot about other profound issues with our system.

Rick Snyder · Jan 27, 2005

I'll try to explain it again

.Lesley D, yes I guess I am importune and this is only due to the 4 thousand people that I have interviewed and the amount of those that don?t know the alphabet and the fact that the DR school system is so messed up.
(to Pib) Having said that and as the alphabet is intrinsic to reading and writing and as it is a fact that the children MUST learn the letters in order to READ and WRITE (not speak) Spanish, it just seems to me that it would be MORE advantages to YOUNG children if they learned to recite the alphabet in that it teaches : 1. The letters that the Spanish alphabet contains. 2. The order that those letters are arranged. 3. The sounds that those letters do in fact make when pronouncing a word in Spanish (except for the W). Now I could be wrong but with the bits and pieces that I have acquired in life I just have to come to the conclusion that if you are going to learn the alphabet in life why not learn in correctly AND at a very young age. IT CAN?T HURT ?????????? AND IT MIGHT HELP ???..
AND IT DOESN?T COST ANYTHING !!! I need an aspirin !

Lesley D said -

What I don't understand is for students to learn a second language well, they have to be very strong grammatically in their own language and speak well. Now knowing the problems, poor educational standards and the drop out rate, shouldn't Alejandrina be concerned about resolving the existing issues as mentioned in my previous post rather than introducing bilingual programs? How would students benefit from English when they are weak in Spanish? I find this very disturbing and once again it opens the doors to more incompetence on the part of teachers.

Lesley D, as usual, you are completely correct and I don?t understand it either unless all of this reporting on all these educational items are just some sort of smoke-screen to make the people think that they really care and are acting on the peoples desires for a better system. A year or so ago I communicated with the Dept of Ed in Panama and they told me that they in fact teach the children to recite the alphabet and that all 29 letters are taught but as I don?t have much faith in any governmental institution I would greatly appreciate it if you would in fact inform me as to what is said by the teachers. Please ask them their drop-out rate also if you can.

To everyone: Through the years the education system in this country has kept getting worse. Almost everyone seems to think more money needs to be spent in order to improve things and I don?t think that is the remedy. With so much corruption within the system the only thing more money will do is fatten the wallets of those ladrons. I adduce that what needs to be done is change the present teaching methods as this doesn?t cost anything to do. Of the Dominicans over 30 years old that I talk to they all tell me that when they went to school they were taught 29 letters and some were taught to recite the alphabet. Somewhere along the way things changed and it is my belief that this was not for the better. Learning to recite the alphabet can be an enjoyable experience, puts that which is learned into memory for access when needed and doesn?t cost anything. For those reasons why do you continue to take a abhorrent view of my idea, which according to Dominicans is not something new, and apply it rather then endorsing the malfeasance that the government is throwing your way.

I understand that learning to recite the alphabet isn't the only change needed and it isn't the most important thing needed but it is in fact a change from the norm and we must start somewhere. Ask ANY teacher if the children entering the first grade knew how to recite the alphabet would their job as teachers be easier and make teaching better. The answer from them all will be 'OF COURSE' 'POR SUPUESTO'.

Mirador · Jan 27, 2005

Yesterday, on the way home, after having picked up my children at school, my youngest Aroa (4 years old) asked me where did Juan Pablo Duarte lived (d?nde vive Juan Pablo Duarte?), and before I could muster an answer, my daughter Angela (10 years old) answered Aroa annoyedly: ' but Juan Pablo Duarte is dead'. Then I went on to explain as simply as I could Duarte's quest for national independence and identity. Later on, I remember watching a TV program where it was stated that Juan Pablo Duarte was no merchant (comerciante) as was his father, and speculated that if he had been, then things would have turned out differently for us Dominicans. But it so happens that Duarte was indeed a merchant. When he lived in exile in Venezuela for the last eighteen years of his life, he made a livelihood buying and selling heron feathers.

Mirador

Pib · Jan 28, 2005

'What we have here is a failure to communicate.'

Rick: Read my post again. Please. I have told you that the alphabet is taught to kids. Not in the first year but later on. If the kids are not learning what is in the friggin' program we have another problem, a bigger problem, that won't be solved with just putting more stress in MEMORIZING the alphabet.

I guess my English is not really all that good. :cross-eye

Marianopolita · Jan 28, 2005

My suggestions...

Rick, I agree with your comment with regards to not giving money directly to the system because it will only go in the hands of "los ladrones como ud. dijo". However, money is indirectly needed in order to fund the issues I mentioned in my first post such as the replacement of old educational material and the provision of supplies. Who should be appointed to administer this is to be determined however, in view of the current corruption in the education system in a perfect or less corrupt institution this is what would I would like to see happen:

* Replacement of current textbooks with text books from reputable publishing houses such as: Santillana, Plaza & Jan?s & Grupo Editorial Norma Educativa just to name some of the top five. A bad textbook is equivalent to a bad teacher. Fundamentally there is no difference. The textbooks students use must have accurate information, no typos, the material must be clear and always well explained. The publishing houses referenced above can provide textbooks on Dominican related material with the difference being exceptional writing quality etc.

* Classrooms need to be equipped with learning tools such as: more than one blackboard, "light", "butacas", chalk so that the teacher could write on the blackboard, desks for every student, visual aids of all kinds.

* Elevated standards. Instead of spending money on bilingual education (per Alejandrina Germ?n, the Secretary of Education) that should be put on hold. The money should be spent on elevating teaching standards. By this I mean slowly phase out the incompetent educators and enhance the qualified ones to minimize the gap between public and private education. Public education is the only option for the greater majority of Dominican students and as a result they should not be victims of the system.

* The curriculum- this is where I see it as a make it or break it situation. If the above is achieved and complimented by a curriculum that is "internationally compatible" with innovative teaching methodologies (and yes, reincorporation of the alphabet in the primary grades) then the educational system in the DR would be on the road to recovery.

Regards,

-Lesley D-

Marianopolita · Jan 28, 2005

Pib,

No tiene nada que ver con tu ingl?s. You are more focused on the "cause" and Rick seems more focused on the "defects" in the system.

-LDG-

Pib said:
'What we have here is a failure to communicate.'

Rick: Read my post again. Please. I have told you that the alphabet is taught to kids. Not in the first year but later on. If the kids are not learning what is in the friggin' program we have another problem, a bigger problem, that won't be solved with just putting more stress in MEMORIZING the alphabet.

I guess my English is not really all that good. :cross-eye

xamaicano · Jan 28, 2005

You bleeding hearts are always trying to complicate things. Personally, I think DR should ban gay marriages. That should fix everything.

Pib said:
'What we have here is a failure to communicate.'

Rick: Read my post again. Please. I have told you that the alphabet is taught to kids. Not in the first year but later on. If the kids are not learning what is in the friggin' program we have another problem, a bigger problem, that won't be solved with just putting more stress in MEMORIZING the alphabet.

I guess my English is not really all that good. :cross-eye

Rick Snyder · Jan 28, 2005

Ahhhhhhhh music to my ears

Thank you Lesley D for post #15. You have that ability to put everything in proper perspective and I thank you for that. Again.

Marianopolita · Jan 29, 2005

Some Panamanian feedback..

Rick,

As mentioned in my post # 10 I said I would try to speak to at least one Panamanian teacher and I did today and this is what she said:

-Los estudiantes aprenden el alfabeto desde el kinder o el primer grado (depende del sector) hasta el tercer grado.

-Ponen las letras en la pizarra y poco a poco aprenden a formar palabras.

La tasa de abandono (en las escuelas secundarias):

-En general en las escuelas p?blicas es m?s alta que las privadas.

-El porcentaje no es tan alto y depende de los sectores por los problemas sociales y econ?micos sin embargo no sobrepasa el 10%.

===========

- The alphabet is taught from Kindergarten or grade one until grade three.
-The students write the letters on the board and gradually they learn to make words.

High school drop out rate:

-The drop out rate is higher in public schools than in private schools.
- The drop out rate currently (students who don?t graduate) ranges between 5- 10%.
-The socioeconomic background of the student is the principal factor.

===========

The teacher (my friend) also commented that teaching the alphabet until grade three has proven to be successful and students grasp the spelling of words faster because they understand the phonetic properties.

-Lesley D-

Rick Snyder · Jan 30, 2005

Yes, yes, yes !!!!!!!!!

I thank you Lesley D for confirming that information and for getting the percentage of the drop-out rate. In my communications over the last two years with the Dept. of Ed in other Spanish speaking countries they have all told me exactly what your friend told you. I have communicated with the Dept of Ed in Mexico, Columbia, Panama, Spain, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina and there were others that never got back to me for one reason or another. I also talked to seven Spanish language teachers from the USA and all the teachers and Dept of Ed said that they teach the alphabet first before anything else. I must admit that a lot of the replies suggested my lucidness for asking such a question as everyone implied that learning the alphabet early is endemic to learning to read and write. Of those persons that I enjoyed extended conversations with they all thought I had prevaricated when I informed them that the DR starts to teach the alphabet in the third grade and that the vowels were taught first by themselves.

Ahhhhhhhhh. Those of you that are Dominican. Did anyone ever hear and or remember this little jingle? ?a, e, i, o, u, El burro sabe m?s que t?.? When this jingle is recited by a Dominican, young or old, it is always done with a smile on their face. This was and still is used to teach the vowels in the DR. Someone somewhere thought this up, in jingle form, as a tool to teach the vowels to (MEMORY). In the US we have had a jingle to learn the alphabet and that?s what I did with the Spanish alphabet, I put it into jingle form for easy reciting and memory. Are there any Americans out there that remember Jimmy the Cricket teaching us how to spell E-N-C-Y-L-O-P-E-D-I-A? Funny what jingles will do at a very early age and how those jingles stay with us forever. As English is so phonetically messed up I, as a young child, appreciated all the help that was offered and I used it thank you. So with my importuning I will once again say. (It DOESN?T COST ANYTHING and it might work).

Again (education in the DR)

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