Ecuador
- I was told that in more than one Catholic school that if a school authority heard that you did not believe in God, you would be kicked out of school.
- They have school inspectors who go around making sure the students are obeying the rules. Even the schools that can't afford toilet paper are paying these "inspectors."
- In many schools here if a female gets pregnant, she gets kicked out of school.
- At one private school I was told the director/owner buys a new car every year. He also wears tinted glasses and expensive suits. He also told me that I would need to give him a letter explaining why I wanted to visit the school and how I would help the English teachers.
- At this school if a student arrives late, they have to wait till the next hour to enter the school. A student told me it is common for students to intentionally arrive late so they can go drinking, smoking, talking etc.
- At this school while I was waiting inside one morning I noticed that the guard at the door locked it from the inside so you needed a key to get out. Then he went off somewhere and did not return until someone rang the bell on the outside wall.
- Many schools here lock the students inside. At one school, for example, a padlock is put on the door so you have to find the person with the key in order to get out.
- Every Monday morning all the schools in the country, as far as I know, make the students line up and sing the national song and perhaps the school song and the city song. In Quito they sing all three each Monday morning.
- One a year, they also make all the graduating students from both the primary schools and the secondary schools march up to the country flag, kneel down and kiss it. Many many hours are spent during the school day practicing this.
- Though it is illegal to hit students in schools here, I saw one student get hit during practice when he did not march "correctly."
- Part of the flag kissing ceremony is to swear that you will respect the laws of the country. Yet the school was not respecting/obeying the law against hitting students.
- I have been told by females in several schools that if an inspector sees that they have too many earings or bracelets or piercings the inspector will order them to take them off and hand them over. At some schools the students are told this personal property will then be "given to poor people."
- I have also been told by students in several schools that cell phones will also be taken from them.One teacher has confirmed this. Sometimes the schools keep the phone until the end of the month, sometimes they keep it till the parent complains. But it seems that in some schools, if the parent does not complain, the school might just keep the phone. I would guess there are at least two reasons a parent would not complain. 1) The student is afraid to tell the parent. It is also very likely the student would lie when asked what happened to their phone. 2) The parent thinks the student deserved to be punished, or the parent is relieved because now they don't have to pay for the cost of the phone calls - which are extremely expensive here. By the way, a cell phone might cost $100 dollars. I have been told that some teachers in public schools make between 180 and 200 dollars per month. So a cell phone is quite an expensive thing here, relatively speaking. If someone else would take a person's cell phone or personal property, this would be considered theft. But not in schools.
- In any ways there is more freedom for students here. I have seen students sitting in the open window ledges two stories up. I have seen students standing on chairs to look out of windows
- In at least one school - the Britanica school - the females must wear ties.
- In one classroom I saw a teacher giving studens an oral test. She would look at her grade book and call them out to come up and speak. But then when they were finished several times she had to ask them again what their names were so she could write down their grade.
- In one English class I saw a teacher give a student a zero for refusing to stand up and sing.
- One teacher got very offended because I was in "her" classroom when she came in. She gave the students a long lecture about resepect and needing to get permission and not standing around me at the front of the room, etc. When the students first saw her coming down the hall most of them ran back to their desks. The students were so afraid of her they literally did not want to approach her to ask her if I was okay if I visited the class and helped with their English pronunciation.
- One teacher let me tell the females in the glass (at an all girls school) what the names for penis and vagina were in English!
- One teacher let me teach the kids my Hugging song. He let the kids hug each other, but he didn't want them to kiss each other.
- At one kindergarten two girls took me by the hands and led me around the schools. I thought about how this would be illegal in the USA and I felt a little afraid the director would complain, but later I saw him walking arm in arm with one. This kind of thing seems normal in most countries. And is certainly normal and healthy for children and teens to touch other human beings.
- At a primary school three girls, around age 9, took me by the arms and let me around their school. Again I was worried about this. But later I saw other girls doing holding their teacher's hand and that teacher said it was fine and couldn't believe it when I said that it would be illegal in the USA, England and Australia. Later though when some girls were holding my hand again a student said the director wanted to see me. I was afraid I was in trouble! But she just wanted to invited me in for tea and sandwhiches with the staff.
- One day I saw students sitting on the stairs eating. There were about six of them. I had to basically climb over them to get past. I thought to myself they would never be allowed to do this in an American school.
- In one school some females were looking at something. I went over to see what it was and asked if I could take a look. They said yes. When I started to translate it to English though, they got embarrassed and tried to cover it up. I said, "What is it about, boyfriends?" They laughed and said yes. Then I said, "Well I know a lot about those kinds of things so it won't shock me. Then they uncovered it and let me read it. Just one more small example of how people known as students will share things with you if you don't try to be an authority figure.
- One day after school I saw a student with red hair. I went to talk to her and her friends. I found out that they are known as the most rebellious students in the school. Some of went to sit down on the grass in a nearby park to talk for a while. After we had talked for fifteen minutes or so one said, "This is the first time we have ever been able to talk to anyone about these things." They were talking about their school's rules, the teachers, their parents etc. They were 14 and 15 years old but they were at least as mature as most university students. In fact, they were more mature than a lot of them. They told me they hated going to that school and the only reason they were going was because their parents forced them to go there.
- Here in Ecuador you can choose where you want to go to school. And there are many different types of schools with different rules and prices. I have never seen such a wide variety of schools in fact. But an important question is: Who decides which school a person will go to? I talked to one student who told me her parents had an interview with the school and decided that is where was going. They didn't discuss it with her. They didn't give her the chance to visit the school or talk to the school authorities about the rules there.
- One teacher told me the reason they have the students stay in the same classroom all day is because it wastes too much time to have them go from one room to another. This is another example of how the social and emotional needs of the students are not considered or not given high priority. But at the same school they will have the students spend a half an hour each morning praying. And they will also have them learing about the religion of that school. Of course they don't teach them about other religions.
- get chillogallo story, link to ei_ed on love, punishment