La Disciplina

Unrelated inappropriate picture. If you're not sure why it's inappropriate...well, it's just a very anatomically correct statue is all.

Let's talk discipline in Spanish schools. I overhead two Spanish girls today talking about the school systems in England, since they had just spent a few weeks there student teaching at the schools.

"They are obsessed with lining up straight" the one sniffed.

"And only speaking when you raise your hand first. I mean, not even a word without the teacher telling you can talk" lamented the other.

They laughed together: "that's why they line up so straight at bus stops." 

This got me thinking about how our education systems really speak volumes about us as a culture, and shape the next generation not just intellectually but also culturally.

British kids are encouraged to be restrained and disciplined and definitely non-chatty. Americans are encouraged to think for themselves, compete with their peers (sometimes respectfully, sometimes not) and consistently strive for their best. (By the way, if you think that list seems universal, you are probably American. None of them are particularly important in Spain.)

Discipline in Spanish classrooms is more lenient in some ways, harsher in others. In general, the noise level is outrageous and "speaking in turn" is totally unenforced. Kids are always up out of their seats, and they often interrupt the teacher in the middle of the lecture. Cheating is a minor kid offense that everyone is expected to do at some point, like picking your nose. Cheaters are usually just told to keep their eyes on their paper, without any of the disciplinary fuss that would be raised at an American school. 

On the other hand, I'm inclined to believe that lung power is part of the requirement for being a Spanish teacher, because they are a real bunch of screamers. They yell at kids, individually and collectively, in ways that Americans would feel are unnecessary and harsh. They will get in a kid's face and yell "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? USE YOUR HEAD FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE! WHAT A BABY!" in a way that has me wide-eyed in the corner. But everyone takes it in stride and five minutes later the teacher is kissing the kid on the cheeks and telling him how handsome he is, like normal (Spanish teachers are demeaning at times but are much more affectionate than American teachers are encouraged to be, so the pendulum swings both ways!) 

In Spain, individual thinking and initiative is not particularly encouraged. Everybody is mostly supposed to stick to the script. Grades are public property, and a teacher will read out everyone's grades on a test to the whole classroom, to the jeers and cheers of the audience. 

This isn't the complete picture, of course. I've worked in three elementary schools over the past two years, and The Mister in a high school, and four schools total isn't exactly a wide sample size. Andalucía, particularly Málaga, is known for being laid-back even for Spaniards, so maybe it's just a bit wild down here in the south?

Either way, it is never boring.