Do you have a child in the United States education system? Are you a teacher in the United States? Are you curious about what school may look like in other countries? If you are, then you have come to the right place!
After I graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May of 2023, I knew I eventually wanted to go full time into a marketing or public relations job in Boston. As someone who wrote articles for Macaroni KID Derry and Nashua, I knew I also had a passion for children. After graduating, I did not want to jump into a full time position in the United States and rather wanted to find a way to work and travel. I chose to work as a teacher in Spain where I could work 20 hours a week with children by teaching them English, then travel on the weekends. I originally chose the job because it was an easy way to travel but a week into teaching, I fell in love with the job and the way that school is taught in Spain.
For starters, children in Spain start going to school at the age of 3. Ages 3-5 are considered “Infantil” and consist of classes I3, I4, and I5. I work mainly with infintill and sometimes in the primary school. I teach in the Catalonia region of Spain and the children that I teach already know two languages being Catalan and Spanish (or Castellano), while they learn English. I remember when I was 6 and in Kindergarten, I didn’t even know my days of the week fully, meanwhile the 3 year olds are learning their days of the week in a 3rd language.
Spain has a mix of different types of schools that you can send your children too and I personally work at a public school. The way the classes work for both infantil and primary are in blocks. The students go to school from 9-4:30 with the schedule as follows:
9-11: First Class + Snack for Infantil
11-11:30: Playtime Outside
11:30-12:30: Second Class
12:30-3:00: Lunch + Naptime + Either Playtime or Extra Classes Parents Elect (Some Kids go Home to Family)
For Teachers this time is used to plan (12:30-2 Plan, 2-3 Lunch)
3:00-4:30: Last Class
This schedule varies greatly from the United States. Teachers are constantly burnt out because they are not given enough time to plan activities and are left doing it at home. They often use their lunchtime to plan when this time should be used for themselves to eat and take a moment to even socialize.
In Spain, lunchtime is so long because it is a time to be social. In Spain, lunch is served around 2 because it is the biggest meal of the day. The schools have three courses with salad everyday then usually soup and a protein or a protein and a carb such as rice or potato or even pasta. There is always a healthier dessert such as yogurt or even an apple and people always sit down to eat, there is never anyone on the street running around eating on their way to work or even running in between classes at school. People in Catalonia always say “Bon Profit”, meaning enjoy your meal. There is a huge emphasis on sitting and enjoying your food and being grateful for it.
The School Day schedule allows a lot of time for children to simply be children and learn better when they have class. During class time, we focus on a lot of singing and playing games with the children along with some montessori activities. There are also classes called “interactive groups” where volunteers or parents come into the school and help to teach the class. This is great for the children because it gets them engaged in a fun way with the class activities and with each other. At this age they are learning a lot of sensory activities so it helps them learn how to interact with each other. Not a lot of technology is used and things are just simple.
The United States Education System can learn a lot from other countries and other countries can learn a lot from the United States as well. As a young professional, I hope to bring back some of the customs and traditions that I have learned in Spain, to the United States.
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