the reason chile brought us here

After 2.5 weeks of WorldTeach training, our little cluster of 13 volunteers has been merged into the main program for more training.  We have also moved living quarters from quiet Londres into always-buzzing Hostelling International with the rest of the program volunteers.


There are many reasons why the people in our group, now of about 50 8-month volunteers, came to Chile--travel, curiosity, Spanish, teaching, self-discovery.  The reason Chile brought us here is for Inglés Abres Puertas, or English Opens Doors.  It's a program run by the Ministry of Education to place volunteer English teachers in the classrooms of public schools so that the children can learn how to speak and use the language, rather than have it explained to them in Spanish by Chilean English teachers, in hopes of creating opportunities for their futures.  The education system here is a broken mess thanks to bureaucracy, social class, and money.  There are three different kinds of school systems:  


Private - tuition is fully paid by the students' families and is very expensive (tuition per month is about $400 and the average middle class family makes about $800 a month)
Semi Private - part of the tuition is subsidized by the government but the rest is paid by the students' families
Public - everything is paid for by the government, but it's not very much


The best education comes from the private schools since they can afford the resources and the teachers.  The next two are pretty much on the same level and are exponentially worse in quality of edu.  The PSU's are exams similar to the SAT's and every student in Chile has to take these at the end of high school to get into a good university.  It's the only determining factor.  No such thing as "well-rounded" here.  Basically, the families with money get the best educations, score the highest on the PSU's, get into the best universities, get the most lucrative jobs, and their kids go to the best schools.  And so the cycle just continues like that.  Chile brought us volunteers here to teach the students in less fortunate social spheres and motivate them to want to learn.  Currently, there is no English language section on the test but perhaps success in one subject would transcend into other aspects of their lives.


As a volunteer teacher only here for seven months in a single school, I know that my influence will be relatively minor.  But if I could teach at least one student awkward turtle, then I would consider my job here done.