Bella Vista Schools

by Kelly Talbert

I had the opportunity to visit the secondary school (high school) where Alicia Sanchez Negrette teaches English classes. This was an interesting contrast with the super-motivated students the previous night at their Open Window school. I sat in the back and observed the class for the first part, then I introduced myself and we had Q & A in Spanish

I was surprised when the class ended and Alicia explained that they might have a "free hour" now. What does that mean? I asked. She told me it means that the next teacher may not come. Teachers don'tt earn great wages, to say the least, and sometimes they don't show up. "What happens in the U.S. if the teacher doesn't come?" she asked. I said, "That doesn't happen." A boy asked, "What if the teacher gets sick?" I explained that a system is in place so a substitute teacher would come. Then the next teacher DID come, so it all worked out.

Then Alicia and I went to the library and chatted with the librarian and other faculty, who drank mate and unwound a bit. It´s good to know that everyone has their version of the teacher´s lounge where they can go and decompress for awhile.

Many of the students at this secondary school won´t go to college. The class I met is about to graduate and the weight of the world is almost upon them. I recalled their smiling faces as I stood in front of the map of the world, showing them Oregon, and felt a wave of sadness. Free public universities are a start, but they don´t fix the economic realities of these kids. These kids have teachers who sometimes don't show up, they have no formal, consistent assistance in determining what career path to choose, if they even go to college. There is no guidance counselor, nor college fairs.

The librarian said that there was someone last year who offered "vocational orientation" on Saturdays, but they had left. And even for the most motivated students in that classroom, they'd have to leave home to go to university, and pay rent, food, electricity, etc. And that is not feasible for many of them. This visit and conversation was a helpful puzzle piece in understanding the big picture.

I then visited a terciario, yet another interesting piece of the puzzle. Terciarios are kind of like a community college, except their programs are three and four years long. They're a good alternative for kids who economically can't go off to college, because they overlap with some of the programs offered at university.

The students I spoke with were studying to be teachers (I noted with amusement that the classroom makeup looked similar to the classes I took in the Middle-Secondary Education program at the Univeresity of Oregon - all ladies, and one guy!).

Maria Eugenia (known more commonly as Mangu), and her daughter Paloma, my delightful hosts in Bella Vista. Mangu is married to Osvaldo, the current team leader for the GSE group visiting Oregon.

Heather and Emily observing a strawberry crop in Bella Vista. After a plague infected many citrus in the area, farmers have been diversifying, trying new crops like blueberries and raspberries.