This was a hurried morning, trying to fit in as much as possible before heading to the airport before 11 AM. I always feel like I have to take advantage of everything I can since in this case I have no idea if I’ll ever be back in Mexico City around Day of the Dead. I started by cabbing it around to see a couple more “ofrendas” first at the Frida Kahlo Museum and then at the National Museum of Popular Culture. The Frida Kahlo one was my favorite of all that I have seen. It’s very brightly decorated with “papel picado” (the cut tissue paper) that covers the ceiling, papier-mache figures, skulls, her favorite foods, tequila, playing cards and the floor is covered with colored sawdust. At the cultural museum, I saw “ofrendas” representative of many different regions like Guerrero, Puebla, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Tamaulipas.
Even though I won’t be back in school until Tuesday, I’ll only be missing two classes with Groups 1A and 1C and one class with Group 1B. I left the movie “Con Ganas a Triunfar” (Stand and Deliver) with a sheet of questions. I had left this movie for the students to watch on two previous occasions, however, with Group 1A it was turned off after 10 minutes since Gerardo starting acting up. With another group, the power went out and the third group never even made it to the audiovisual room since the one person with a key to that room wasn’t in school that day. This time, in case of any technical difficulties, I left a backup plan.
I like “Stand and Deliver” especially because it is a true story of students in East L.A. I’m sure my students will be able to relate to at least part of the movie as, except for a few, the students featured in the movie don’t have any interest in school and make class almost impossible for a teacher to control. Those who do want to learn are torn by the responsibility of helping support their families financially. The math teacher, Jaime Escalante, showed the students how capable they were and he motivated all of them to take the AP test so that they could receive college credit and from there hopefully obtain scholarships. Every single student passed the test. The low expectations for these inner-city minority students, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, not only run rampant within their own communities and across the city and country, but they cross the border as well. This evening, when I passed through customs in Dallas, the immigration officer questioned why I had been gone for three months. After I said that I’m teaching in Mexico City he said, “Oh, wow. That must be like teaching the dunce class.”
So I face the conundrum: Despite others expectations, I aim to motivate students and help them realize their capabilities, while encouraging them to continue school. Reality, on the other hand, is that Mexico City taxi drivers make more money than teachers do.
