91 Años De Soledad
On September 3, 1928, ASFM opened its doors to 57 students from first grade to tenth grade, introducing them to a modern American education. Since then, ASFM is considered to be one of the leading schools in Mexico. The classes offered have various levels of academic difficulty meant to suit everyone and allow students to truly learn about their interests. It is ironic though, that in such a distinguished school most Mexican students have difficulties writing, reading and speaking in their native language.
The results in a survey answered by 87 ASFM high school students uncovered the following:
Ms. Lamelas, leader of the department asserted that having only four hours of the class per week makes them “el enanito peleando contra el gigante.” Out of the seven periods students have in their schedules, only one involves Spanish which encompasses the topics of history, grammar, literature and writing. Still, many students depend on their computer’s spell checker for acentos and don’t recall important national festivities. However, there has been a revolutionary change; for the first time in ASFM history, there is now an option to take an elective in Spanish called Taller de creación literaria for the 2020-2021 school year. “Tenemos esperanza que se inscriban estudiantes para darle la importancia que merece,” Lamelas voices.
As well as this, it is possible that in the near future there will be more than just a choice between AP and regular Spanish. Ms. Quiñones reveals, “Estamos planeando abrir más clases para que los alumnos de Bach 3 puedan elegir si quieren el AP, o dedicarse más a la escritura, literatura, tal vez literatura comparada o investigación.”
After the implementation of the SEP’s curriculum last year, the Spanish team faced a wave of criticism. But what most don’t know is that it took four years to find an original program for the Spanish class, seeing as, in the past, the curriculum was directly translated from the English department. As explained by Dr. Chenier, assistant principal for curriculum, they were given a unique challenge because “in subjects like English and Math there’s common core and a set of standards that teachers can pick from, but Spanish follows a SEP program where standards aren’t written that way, so ASFM teachers had to take the additional step of writing standards based on what the program asks for.” Spanish teachers admit that there are still flaws in the program, but it will be perfected with changes throughout the year. “They are prepared to do this, we just have to give them time and support to do it well, to bring español even more to life and connect it to the other subjects,” Dr. Chenier assures.
Evidently, the Spanish team faces a challenge by simply being in an American school. Underneath all the projects, novels, and work that take part in our Spanish class, there are teachers working hard to provide us with the best education possible. As students, we could give a greater priority to the study of our first language, so we can grasp a greater understanding of our Mexican identity. ¿Sacas?