vwbat

worldTeach prep is pretty legit; however, these folk love their acronyms. SWBAT is students will be aware that... a way to create learning objectives for our eventual english lessons. worldTeach coyly coined VWBAT or volunteers will be aware that... and plan their lessons for us accordingly.

so far, i´m aware that chile is diverse. some say developing, but the metro (subway) is more advanced, efficient, and spotless than the subway i rode on for five years in toronto. and yet, apparently the massive transportation revamp the country initiated a year ago has left many people in the outskirts of santiago without reliable, afforable channels into the city. there´s many comparable situations like this. in many ways, this country is very advanced and yet simultaneously, there are struggles that seem to keep certain groups in stagnation.

one example is education. how serendipitious that is! like the states, there´s a massive test chileans must take in order to get into the best universities (there are 3, all in santiago - u de chile, u de santiago, and the universidad catolica). the test is called the PSU (think SAT). so, schools pretty much teach for the test and therfore, it isnt really a true measure of intelligence or ability; however, it remains wholly decisive for one´s future. if you go to a private school, you are inarguably better prepped to succeed. if public, not so much. so 30-35% of chilean kids make it to university. of that, 90% are from private schools and 10-15% are from public (ross). that disparity is indicative of other disparities within the city. disparities, that as far as i can tell, have been around for a very long time.

best part of this sad tale is that chilean high school students aren´t at all passive like us gringos. last year, high school STUDENTS (!) througout the country organized themselves and took to the streets of santiago and other city centers to strike. sporting signs like "a country's development is expressed by the quality of its schools, not by the quality of its highways," these cats demanded attention and after some obligatory lack of response from national government, got some.

is this even possible in north america? i would hope so and yet i´m not so sure. stories like these make me feel useful here and give me hope that people in my classes (who are in fact required to take and not necessarily desiring english instruction) can help me buck the system and achieve some ish within a sometimes broken system.




and a note on this blogging thing:

i usually am blogging in a lobby of a hostel that is filled with people from all over the western hemisphere (and sometimes gregarious, horny old dutch men from the eastern). this environment, one in which folk be drinking the drink, smoking the smoke, pooling the cue, cueing the tube, and shooting the shoe is not the most inducive one to be a bloggin´in. mind you, i´m kinda a neophyte. nevertheless, if you find these obz a little to surfacey in the nowtimes, stay tuned for some serious existential jibberish once i get some privacy and a reliable internet connect.

much love ya´llz and wish me luck at my first chilean discoteca this weekend!

disco disco disco disco, discotheque.