Really Ready to Learn

 

For many years my house was a pit stop for the Mexican workers who came into this region to pick apples every fall . Some time in mid August I would hear a door slam, the sound of Spanish being spoken on the road, and look up to see groups of young men, or men, women and children coming down the pathway to say, “Hello! We’re back! When can the English lessons start?” People would then be in and out all fall, sitting on my porch, bringing papers to be translated, using the phone to call Mexico, or just stopping in with a box of apples. Often the children had to sit around for hours as their parents worked on some paper or other or waited their turn to use the phone (This was pre cell phone days).

I began to notice something interesting about these young children. They were never intrusive, restless, or bored, and they didn’t fight with each other. Unlike their Anglo contemporaries, they didn’t bug their parents or anyone else. They just played, or sat and day dreamed. If someone was there to play with, good, they would disappear around the side of the house. If not, they found some small toy and invented a game. It wasn’t that they were intimidated; they were just able to amuse themselves for long periods of time. They were obviously used to following adults around, listening to the murmur of adult conversation, and making their own fun. (Visiting the camps, I also noticed that the children were passed around a lot, made much of, cuddled and played with, not only by their own families, but by all the young men who were, after all, far from their own brothers and sisters.)

We popped the school age children into our local country school where no Spanish was spoken and there were no other Hispanic children. In spite of this, they did very well, especially the youngest ones. They bravely climbed onto a bus full of English speaking strangers in the morning, made friends in school, and brought home glowing reports from their teachers. These were well behaved, friendly, surprisingly resilient, and unusually confident young children. In spite of the itinerant life style, the poverty, the language and cultural issues, they were “school ready.”

I’ve been thinking about those days this week as I prepare a talk/training for migrant parents that I will be giving at the National Migrant Conference in a couple of weeks. I ran across an article called "The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding" (Galindo and Fuller, Developmental Psychology, 2010 vol 46, No 3). This article reiterated what I had observed. Latino (especially Mexican) kindergartners come to school with a set of "social" skills that equals those of middle class "white" children. The article speculates that Mexican culture and family life is behind this surprising finding. The article also says, however, that their math skills are not what they should be. (Interesting in view of the fact, that I have also noticed over the years that adults educated in Mexico tend to have much better math skills than minimally educated adults in this country. I think the parents simply do not realize that they can help their children mathematically, and that not speaking English does not matter.)

I suspect that parents create a little bubble of loving security for their children especially in the early years. It is almost as if the families carry the village with them as they move around the country, and village life is healthy one for young children. Working now with parents in New York City (as well as Hispanic families), I’ve been thinking about how parents could combine the intellectual and verbal stimulation that we want to give our children with a little dose of village life. This is one time when it is possible, I believe, to have to best of both worlds in any one family.

 

Comments

[pelamarisic@rocketmail.com]

I have been trying to create this loving bubble that you speak of, in the community and adopted family. I believe you are on to something with the cultural delevelopments. I see what my daughter has been gifted with and some of the areas in which I need a village. Thank you for starting my circle and village. I believe in you, but so much more important, you have made me believe in myself. Much love, Péla