Primer Grado en Tres Países (2017) - full transcript
Good morning!
Time to wake up!
- Hi!
- what's up?
- Hello!
- Hi Caro!
How are you?
- Fine.
How was the start of school?
It was fine. I was surprised they let
the parents inside the classroom.
They let us see where the children sit.
Watch the classroom.
The teacher spoke a bit.
It were five or ten minutes, but
I was surprised they let us in.
No activities, but they let us
know the classroom.
Wake up Juan, wake up.
The rooster crows.
August 2015
A public school can be fine,
depending of the people attending.
We live in a hood where Leo could have
gone with an 80% immigrant students.
That means they are worst at french.
I don't know why that's a prejudice.
I don't know what's the prejudice
but I didn't wanted to try.
What day is it today?
I can't say because I don't like it.
What day is today? What's going on?
- I don't like it.
What don't you like?
I hate that recess is over.
Wake up Juan, wake up Juan.
Monday?
- Monday. What's going on today?
Where are you going?
Classes start today!
Winter recess ends.
- Stop it!
Well, I will prepare breakfast.
First School Grade in three countries
August 2014
Julia starts first grade
in Helsinki (Finland)
Here I have no option.
It's public school. The good
thing it's that the level
will be good everywhere.
Other friends were going to this school
so we apply for it and got it.
But the education is good everywhere.
A little bird!
Did you know you can do it with money?
You can buy tools to build a treehouse.
Buy food for the birds.
I told you I was very excited
now that school starts
It was gonna be in the same hours
and I was gonna meet the parents.
- Yes!
- Well, welcome to Finland, Agustina!
The first day all the parents
took photos, filmed, watched.
The next day when I go pick up Julia,
no one. All the kids go back alone.
You were the only one?
- I was!
Tuesday at noon.
I go out at that time too.
Then tuesday is better.
Yes.
Ok, that's great.
Hi Juli.
And then I feel that difference.
How would Julia feel if I'm the only
one that goes pick her up.
She told me she wanted to come
back alone. And wants a phone.
Because all the kids have phones
and go home alone.
And so now I let her go with
our little neighbors.
The three go out together.
Did you salute your sister?
Look at what that sweet child is doing!
We choose a public school
in mixed neighborhood.
September 2014
Leo starts classes in Roubaix (France)
Which means there's children from
different social backgrounds.
You have to travel a lot to take him?
Just a kilometer, it's nothing.
But a kilometer away, the scene is
totally different.
It's another thing.
It's unfair, because the school I change
him to, have music and english studies.
It has a lot of extracurricular
activities that are pretty good.
The problems are different.
Schools give different opportunities
according to your place.
Are you ready to start first grade?
Yeah? Kind of?
"Will I play soccer
besides having science
classes" that's
his bigger concern.
There's no problem with
a lot of students but well...
This year there's rugby,
but soccer I don't know.
I need to know if he's gonna
go to the dinner and the day care.
Yes.
And tomorrow?
- Yes.
What's going on?
- Nothing, I'm excited.
What was your impression?
- Fine, good.
Did you liked the teacher?
- Yeah I liked her alot.
Why are you crying?
September 2014
Buenos Aires, Argentina
While Julia and Leo
start first grade in
Europe,
in Buenos Aires Gero finishes preschool.
We need to pick a
primary school for him.
We went to public schools, like most
kids in our childhood.
Like most kids we went to the closest
school to our home.
Our parents didn't choose school because
they trusted they were all the same.
Chose? That's a verb from this times.
What do you think about
while choosing schools?
I think public school can have
more diversity of backgrounds.
And that's something I want to pass on.
For me school is more
than just knowledge
and quality education,
about contents.
But also the values that
are passed to the children
and the citizens and
world we want to build.
I'm a biology professor,
work on the ORT school as
teacher and had excellent
students who work well.
They did fine, had great redaction.
So I ask them what school they went.
They said Integral Caballito, so I
search about it and loved it.
You went to a public school?
I went to a primary public school,
then in
high school went to
the Carlos Pellegrini.
Hello my friends, did you know that I...
I found this dove feathers.
Another feather!
What do you think about
public school today?
With all that diversity,
we need to include all children.
And the teachers maybe
need to lower the bar
so everyone can be included.
It happens to me as a professor in a
Public school.
Maybe the academic level can be lowered
but I didn't look for those things.
I just look for the results.
They are going to Jesus House School.
It's a very old school. Traditional.
It has to do with my personality
and things I like.
I feel safe and contained
in a traditional environment.
In what I can predict.
That's a school for me.
Hello little friend.
Hi, I will crash you to death!
Four. One, two, three, four.
Fourteen.
There's a point in which it's not about
public or private schools.
It's not the same a private school
than another one.
And the same goes with public schools.
What scares you about public schools?
More kids in each
classroom. It depends of the
school but there's more
kids than in a private one.
I wonder how can they look each kid,
when there're so many for each teacher.
Little poo, little poo...
Little poo, little poo!
Not a public school
because I need double
schooling,
and those I've founded are only simple.
That's one of my requirements.
It's very difficult to
schedule activities for
a boy and a girl, at that age,
and one mother.
Dante you start first grade next year?
-Yes!
What school will
you be attending?
The one with Benja,
Mirco, Matias and Leon.
Did you already know it?
- Yes.
And how was it?
- Fine.
There will be soccer and ballet. We'll
learn english too.
And Gera, why do you want them to go
to a public school?
I think we shouldn't
have to do a monthly
payment,
especially as high as is requested now
to have a reasonable education.
I knew what kind of school I
wanted and search in the area.
I wanted then to have a big yard
so they could run during recess.
Private schools rarely have those.
What I remember fondly
from my own school is
lots of space to run
and have a good time.
Offside!
There's clothing there!
No! That's the goalpost!
Goal!
They have gym and after fall break,
they told
us they had to learn
to bathe themselves.
Because they take showers at school.
And what about the bathrooms?
There's one for girls and one for boys.
I ask them if there was someone older
watching them.
And they said they were alone and the
teacher was outside.
And are they all together or are
the showers individual?
Are those showers?
They see each other naked.
That how it is in the girls one.
It's very normal here.
You go to the pool
and know everyone
from the neighborhood.
In France Leo goes to the pool,
twice each week since february.
They search for parents to
help kids get dress.
Two times each week they need 3
or 4 parents to go with them.
To help kids dress up and
with all the stuff.
But kids are not so... How did you say?
Self-sufficient like in Finland.
Well in Finland they need to dress up
alone at age 3.
Because in winter you need to
put on so many clothing.
That if the teachers had to dress
up all kids, they would never go out.
Raise your legs Milo! Rise your feet!
Very good!
So here my kids know
how to dress up since...
Very fast compared to Argentina.
Up!
What are you looking for?
- I was watching that.
I put it there so they
see you wake up.
You did it well.
- Yeah?
Little glasses. Take this.
Little foot.
Another foot.
Up!
It's very pretty, the sky cleared.
Let's go.
What does people think about
the school in France now?
Teachers and school are
challenged or not?
It's always being questioned.
They say it reproduces too many
social patterns.
There's always the stigma of the son
the worker that will end up bad.
The businessman's son will end up fine.
That elitism put the school
in France in question.
We have a meeting in Leo's school
after the first week.
All the parents were invited.
We sat there and
realised that the more
capable children sit
at the back of the class.
They put them like that?
Watch out, here comes a terrible one!
...and they were at the
back of the classroom.
And the others are in
the front of the class.
There's a ranking,
the teacher does this for
their good. She puts
the bad ones in front
and the good ones behind, but she does
a ranking without thinking about it.
And I think the kids feel this.
I see this as difficult.
In France this is worst.
In my generation we
used to have a report
card, with the report
card set by best results.
You had the first one, second and
third best of the class.
And you knew who was the
worst student in class.
That's awful!
It changed a bit, but there's
still a bit of that.
When you are first one, you love school,
but as the last one you hate it.
Jauregui.
A town of 5000 people, along the
banks of the river Lujan.
At one hour driving
from Buenos Aires City.
Part of our family lives here and we
sometimes dream about moving here.
Which school could we
send Geronimo here?
Are you from Jaugueri?
Yes, we lived here from years now.
What school does your kids go?
- San Luis Gonzaga.
Why that one?
For me it was the best teaching values.
Here the children come at the morning
and the director is waiting
for them at the door.
He greet them with a kiss and knows
everyone's name.
That's really surprising because
you don't see it anywhere.
We are a big family here.
We go to the club,
the kids play soccer and
hockey and take
english classes together.
All the kids do the same and the parent
make friends with each other
because we search for the same thing,
and we value that a lot.
What school do you got to?
- San Luis Gonzaga.
What grade are you at?
- Fifth... third.. I'm at fifth.
He's in fifth grade, so is he and she.
Third, third and sixth grades.
Whoever studies in the Gonzaga
carries a backpack for life.
With their values, the person they
are and helping your neighbour.
I have a student in primary
and secondary school too.
And we want them to finish school
with an educational context
that they can learn at any school.
But these values can't be
teach at any school.
You live that from their director,
teachers and staff who think the same.
What do you enjoy the most about school?
I like natural sciences.
I like animals,
cats and dogs. Animals of all sorts.
Even if they are wild
animals I like them.
I like that and the solar system too.
Do you live here?
We live a block away.
Out three kids are born here
and raised in the club.
They always went to school here,
but Bautista
couldn't adapt to
a traditional school.
He needed to develop his artistic side.
We send him to a Waldorf school,
and it's a wonderful place.
It has a lot of values that
other schools don't have.
Is more natural, with organic food.
You know where the food comes from.
And Jauregui public school?
Jauregui has a public school,
but very little students.
Very few children.
Almost everybody chooses private schools
for it's safety.
That we need at this
times we are living in.
You went to a public or private school?
Public school. I'm from the province,
in Bragado.
There you don't have private schools.
I went to a public
school a long time ago.
There were no teacher's strikes,
it was a simpler time.
I was in a private primary school, but
did secondary school in a public one.
In an industrial school.
Is how Sandra was saying, about the
damage of the teacher's image.
That's what made the view of the
public school fall from grace.
That's how we see things.
I went to a private school, my
husband always to a public one.
He keeps insisting our children
should go to public school.
But well... no.
I won't send them.
I don't know.
Caro and the private vs. public
school is in debate there?
Everyone goes to public school?
No! You can choose.
The parents that want to avoid
certain schools can do it.
They are organized for catholicism,
and they are not for profit.
So private schools are catholic.
That's the great majority of cases.
Now you also have muslim ones.
That's because you
are living in the province.
Here could be the same in the province.
But in Paris?
Maybe there you have private schools
with no subsidy.
Maybe for very lucky people,
but those are not common.
Is like Argentina when we were kids.
Then everyone went
to a public school unless
they were very
religious or very rich.
Let's back to Buenos Aires.
If our family were an upper-middle
class family
living in the north of the city, our
son would go to this school.
This is a way to handle children
in an integral way.
It goes beyond the
work in the classroom.
We try to open a window to
what kids can develop.
The body movement, language,
beyond the written word.
The way to express themselves, art,
theater, photography, technology.
There you can see how wide of a
proposal this school has.
Which is it's most unique point of view.
The teachers are different and the
parents know this,
by their cultural, methodological
and pedagogic approach
and the way in which they engage
with every single child.
That you can see in it's good mood.
The school is good humored.
We try to find the most emotional
and caring ways.
We appeal to affection, laughter
and good humor.
Instead of a stiff educational model.
For us it's a big challenge to generate
regulatory frameworks.
Not only with the teaching staff, but
also with families and children alike.
One of the challenges
we have to build that
framework,
with children and grown ups.
It has to do with the way we build
authority.
That's something we give a lot of
thought.
That a penalty don't become a
bureaucratic report to the family.
But that kids turn that
into something that
makes them stronger,
and better citizens.
We have it written as part of the
school's internal publication.
Every year this is updated.
The children take it in their backpacks
and binders.
They know they have this norms that
regulate and preserve them.
That they can go to when there's the
need to chat about what's going on.
Most families come
from a cultural background
that the school read
according to their features.
There's lots of doctors, psychologists,
teachers, professionals.
They know that here,
the academic world is
guarantee to have a
particular experience.
And at each learning
stage they will get a mix
of different situations
that challenge them.
If we were a poor family, living
in the south of the city...
our son would probably
go to this school.
Last year, a friend from my neighbors
told me her son had troubles in school,
that the principal treated him badly.
She told her he was insane and so on.
It seems the kid didn't got it.
I ask about his school.
At a school four blocks from my own.
I already recieved parents
asking to enter my school.
Because they were mistreated,
or behaved badly.
They didn't let children
with disabilities enter.
The principal told them
they had no classrooms.
A school that highly
discriminates it's students.
But this friend who is an artist,
very cool and full of herself.
I still have not tell her I was the
principal of the school.
So I told her: "Why don't
you try with the School 4?"
"The school in Solis".
"The Solis one? They let anyone in!"
I knew she was saying it as a bad thing.
And it gave me this discomfort.
And so I told her: "Yes,
anyone can enter and I'm the principal
And that's the good thing about
the school. Anyone can get in".
"What did you mean by anyone?"
Like any other school from the area,
a lot of the children live in hotels.
The sheds in the area have also the
problem of constant migration.
Inside the same hood too.
Because they can't pay the hotel.
Or the city government stopped paying
their benefit and they have to leave.
So they go to another one three
blocks away.
But that messes with their
already weak structure.
These kids live moving all the time.
Raquel Waldhorn was the principal of
Tomas Espora School until 2014
when she retired.
This images are a memory of her
last day in charge of the school.
It would be good to have more
middle class in school.
Because middle class parents can also
collaborate with the school.
They can demand stuff and go together.
There's an exclusion problem that
also started at school,
When a couple of friends, he's an
architect and she a graphic designer.
they were looking for
a school and went to
a school three blocks
away from their home.
And after talking to the principal
she told them their son was
not for that school.
If she says that to 10 kids, sure...
If she told them that the school is
wonderful to their kid to those 10
she would had 10 families of
middle class from the neighborhood.
I have friends who
lied about their address,
to get their kids into
a prestigious school,
that maybe is 20 blocks
away from their home.
Then what values are we talking about?
They want a prestigious public school.
Lying.
Then I lie like the people in the slums.
The people there, as soon as they
can save some money
send their kids to private school.
And they have to lie about their address
or they won't enter in a private school.
And what do the teachers say?
This shit people that
lie about their address
so no one knows they
come from the slums.
Up!
My beautiful baby!
Today start school!
March 2015 Geronimo starts
first grade in Buenos Aires.
Soon I won't be able to
tell you baby anymore.
You are gonna be a big boy.
I roll your sleeve?
- No, like that.
Ready!
Beautiful.
Let's go?
Are you gonna take a picture?
Don't close your eyes!
Put a normal face.
We are a middle class family.
We live in Caballito,
a middle class neighborhood.
And this will be our son's school.
The first impression is that it looks
pretty good.
The Parents Auxiliary works well, it
has a nice library, a laboratory...
Computer room, and all the stuff
that the the Parents Auxiliary did.
In Argentina the
quality of the building
and equipment depends
on that organization.
Good afternoon.
- Good afternoon teachers.
We are gonna start the 2015 school term.
Who is missing? Where
is the seventh grade?
Sixth grade? I don't see them.
And fifth grade?
Fourth?
The younger children? Second
and third grade?
Are we all? Who is missing?
First grade.
Who is missing?
- First grade!
Today is the first day of the youngest
in school, they start first grade.
They are gonna be with miss Mariela.
Let's greet them with an applause.
The kids enter when all the other
children were inside.
And they entered one by one with
all the people surrounding them.
And they sit them in this bleachers.
And the teacher told us we could take
them all the pictures we wanted.
Caro was here that day.
I knew she was gonna
be there and could assist.
For Caro it was a real experience.
It was very theatrical for the
kids entering first grade.
It was incredible.
How they are presented, all the scene.
It was very theatrical.
We will sing the national anthem.
My first day of school
was totally different.
My parent let me at the door,
and I remember the panic.
They made us stand in rows
and then go to class.
And I was asking who is this people,
and how is this thing gonna be?
And looking around
and feeling loneliness.
I remember my first day, being
in rows like you say.
Girls at one side, boys on the other.
And everything so serious.
Hear, mortals, the sacred cry:
"Freedom, freedom, freedom"
"Hear the sound of broken chains,
see noble equality enthroned".
You doubt about public and private.
You had that pressure
of "if I put him in
a private school it
will end up better".
And he will end up with a
better chance in life.
You and Alejandro had that debate.
I had lucky because
we have a good teacher.
Public schools had that, you
can't choose teachers.
I'm very worried about stimulating
Gero's passion for knowledge.
I want that the school keeps feeding
his learning urges.
I think that depends of the teacher,
like you said
also the principal, but not if
the school is private or public.
You know what you're gonna
do with this poster?
In this white paper, you are gonna write
your name.
Now in secondary school I would think
more about what you say Caro.
About what job opportunities
the school with facilitate.
I think more about those aspects
in secondary school.
Do you have silver?
- I do, look at it.
I don't have silver.
Write your name and drew whatever
you like in the rest of the paper.
And the parents will have to
write a message to their kids.
That they want their children to
read in the future.
Maybe the difference
with France is that
at the end of primary
school kids do chose.
When they are nine
years old some kids choose
technical careers,
like electrician and plumber.
Maybe we worry before.
- They are so young.
At 11 they are outside the mainstream
because results are no good.
They do tests in France
at first grade level?
Yes, they are evaluated.
In Finland don't. For example Julia
didn't had any test.
She never told us "I have to study,
tomorrow I have a test".
But the teachers do
some internal evaluation.
Here in Argentina is the same.
There was a parents
meeting and the teacher said:
"I took a test on the children without
telling them it was a test".
She didn't want to create distress
in the kids or the families.
And she gave it to us to sign it, and
told us: "this was a test".
Ten plus ten is twenty.
Yes.
Well, I already did those, now these.
Eight minus one is... seven.
One minus six, is...
- One minus six?
One minus... no, six minus one. Five.
Seven minus one is six.
Four minus one is...
Three.
In France they are
tested since last year.
Since last year?
Beginning of first grade?
Since preschool.
- Since preschool? Wow!
They don't put grades,
but test if this and that is ok.
And that creates a certain pressure.
Of course!
Only one time they
ask her to pay attention
in something of her writing that I
don't remember what it was.
Then the rest were all positive marks
With Gero the same, they don't
give negative marks.
She didn't correct this one, and the
ones I painted with marker.
She didn't correct this one either
because I went outside the paper.
This one either and this one...
she did correct this one.
What did she grade it with?
- This.
I don't know why she didn't
correct the other ones.
Maybe she didn't saw those yet.
Coffee shop, candy store.
Pa... bakery, candy store.
Don't shoot me!
Read something else.
That one.
Ba-ke-ry.
Co-ffee-shop.
"Roel".
Lunch service.
Dishes.
That's it.
- That's it?
She called for a meeting one month
after the start of classes.
The objective was to tell us how
they teach Math and Language.
Before it was Language,
not it's called Language practice.
They wanted to tell us so when we help
in home we use the same technique.
For example in math they don't
do vertical calculations.
If they do 25+15, they don't
put one over the other.
Look at that,
in France they do it like that.
Here it was like that before.
Julia is doing simple math in Finland
and it's all horizontal.
They don't talk about
units like tens and hundreds.
You saw that we...
Nothing to do with
what they teach here.
Incredible!
And then?
They talk about tens but in another way.
The idea is that they find their way of
doing math without map it out.
They have this thing
called "number castle".
And they can use it as reference to find
their way, that's what I understood.
You say there's not a big difference
between teaching methods?
In the content.
What I do notice is very different
are the books.
Especially the language book.
Like I said before,
Julia's one has options.
A kid that doesn't read yet has the
same chapter that Julia
but in the same
chapter they have sounds and syllables.
The pages are 4 per unit.
In the first two pages there's the
letter they are studying.
For example the M, combined with
the A, the E and whatever.
In the second page there's sentences and
the last ones there's text.
But they learn different
stuff. I mean one is
learning syllables and
the other sentences.
Yes, but they end up coming together.
Teaching is going through big changes.
Because next year
we start a new curricula
and this will be very different to
what we have work with this far.
For example in Natural Sciences,
we have this curricula.
In which we has all the subject
to deal with in class.
Like the plants the kids need to know.
In the new curricula there's only
one skill with one subject.
And teachers can choose what content
is better to teach that skill.
This curricula give is a lot of freedom.
And we want that kids can... that
the information reach them.
That we don't be just
information deliverers.
But this curricula works towards
a child with an active role.
And develop thinking skills.
Who do the trees do it?
How do you do a pencil case with a tree?
See if all your pencils are sharpen.
Separate those that do and don't.
Sharpen, sharpen, sharpen...
Sharpen, blunt, sharpen...
Sharpen, blunt, sharpen...
Sharpen...
Blunt.
Very sharpen!
I was talking with
Leo's teacher and she
told us that parents
need to be demanding.
Because she demands a lot from the kids.
And if there's not a follow up in home,
that demand doesn't work.
That's the opposite to
what the teacher told us.
Maybe it's because the french language
is known to be difficult.
At one point kids could
write as they listen.
But at some point they need to
learn a list of words.
And how these words are written.
At the beginning they also
wrote phonetically. And it was fine.
But if they make mistakes,
like jump letters...
Now they have to know those
words by heart.
Because the letter O can be written
in four different ways.
One day they learn to write the AU,
and have
a list of ten words that
are written that way.
And if make a mistake it's corrected.
If it's wrong the little face is
angry instead of happy.
The system is very different, maybe
because of the language.
But I think it's another teaching style.
Yeah it's another ideology.
What you talk about sounds like
the Montessori method.
To respect the children's times,
something more personal.
A family tree is a tree...
With the grandparents. Says Sofía.
Ousmane say his
grampa is not going into the tree.
Ousmane's grandpa doesn't want
to give him a picture.
His picture in a tree! No!
Ousmane is afraid.
He's fearful that Sofia
and the others mock him.
His the only kid with a
grandpa called Karamoku.
Sofia tells him: you are lucky.
To have a grandpa who tells you stories.
So, you never spoke with Leo's teacher?
At the start of class we
have a meeting with her.
And she told us how the year
was gonna be like.
Yes.
Parents are not invited to go to school,
you see.
It's not a place for parents at
certain point. It bothers the teachers.
It's bothersome. They don't ask you
to participate, it's weird.
The house and school are two different
things, and they don't mix easily.
Well here is the same.
Here it's understood that everything
they do is ok.
They don't ask you to sign any permits.
The school decides what's best and
you don't have anything to say about.
I'm disconcerted, maybe because in
Argentina you know everyone in school.
You knew the parents and have a daily
relationship with the teachers.
Here we already had four meetings
with the teacher.
A lot!
Also at the end of class she is
present when the kids get out.
So you can ask her something.
My perception as a
mother is that there's
little room to get
close to the school.
My door is open every
time you need to see me.
Since day one I told you I'm available
at any moment.
But parents are not used to get
close to the schools.
Compared with Argentina,
where Leo grew up.
There's no tradition of parents
involved in the school life.
Oh no, there's a lot.
You have to see how things progress.
We ask them for help with tours.
And many parents come to my
classes in different situations.
And I ask her if it's difficult to have
contact with the school.
And she said she's
available at any moment.
But that's something you don't know
how to ask.
I have little doubts, and I'm not gonna
summon a meeting for a small thing.
What you are saying
Caro about how you
can't access the teacher,
and can't talk.
Here in Argentina that would create
a lot of fear about how's the teacher.
They are under a lot of scrutiny.
Here is rare to know
someone who you think is
not capable,
because selection is different.
Last year a professor told
me that only one of every
ten people that apply to
be a teacher in Finland got it.
That can be true.
Good morning!
You can sit.
Stand again!
Now one, two three!
Today the subject are american indians.
How many of you know where Argentina is?
Messi plays there.
Yes, Messi plays there.
Morris!
- Is in South America.
Very good!
So we know where Argentina is.
Let's sing the second verse.
One, two, three, four.
Corn is yellow, the moon is rising.
The Milky Way shines
in a droplet of dew.
The loafer doesn't
even step over a reed.
Where the indian girl with the
golden hair goes by.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen.
To the technical workroom from the
Vousaaren school in Finland.
In Finland the teacher's position
still invokes a lot of respect.
Some teachers could have been lawyers,
doctors or engineers.
But choose to be teachers, for
some inner calling.
When I take my car to be fixed, we
make jokes, but they respect me.
A receive a special treatment
for being a teacher.
Currently a lot of
people question teachers.
Sometimes teachers don't say what
the parents want to hear.
And we give them a different
view of their children.
This is something very important.
And currently the role of the teacher
is undermined by our society.
I want to thank you
from all of the teachers.
Each of you for your backing up.
It was a difficult year, very intense.
But with a lot of learning.
Sometimes I'm like the "singing voice".
But when I speak in on
behalf of all the teachers.
And that's because we
have agree on it beforehand.
I hope I didn't discomfort you.
And I hope you had time to reflect on
what we told you from this side.
Thank you all, enjoy your vacations.
And I see you next year.
The group demanded me to
be in a state of constant alert.
All the time aware of their stand
inside the classroom.
Their behavior, and don't forget
to teach at that point.
Why?
Because they are very
uneasy and you have to pay
attention to it. Otherwise
you loose the class.
Happy holidays.
By Cori, happy holidays!
- Thank you.
To you too.
Happy holidays Gero!
Say thank you.
About the criteria of corrections,
Gero never got any negative one.
Never a negative or regular note.
Or how the mom from France told us,
an angry face.
You don't use angry faces.
No, no. I don't use angry faces
to grade students.
There's always something positive
to value from each kid.
And I think that's what
we need to highlight.
The effort they put into it.
Beyond the results they got,
if it's the same or not.
But how hard they work and their effort.
If I use an ugly face, that kid may
never want to try writing something
or solving a problem.
The first thing he's gonna think about,
is "she's gonna give me an ugly face".
That's not the idea.
This is me.
It's me going to the park.
And this one?
- Is a story I wrote.
You alone?
Yes. It's about a dragon,
I mean a crocodile.
Can you read it to me?
Once upon a time there was a
crocodile that liked...
A lot.
Read it yourself.
"To ride in a skateboard".
Let's go, read it.
You!
Then he went to the
forest each day to ride.
But he was...
- Too fast.
Too fast and...
One day he crashed.
What does it say?
Little... knew that...
He learned that crocodiles
can't ride in skateboards.
He said "this isn't for me".
I wrote it with Jazmin.
Pretty good!
This is a dragon puppet.
This is me screaming at mom.
Why are you screaming at me?
I am angry at you.
Why did you draw yourself angry at me?
We had to do something
that make us angry.
The teacher told you that...
We read a story of a kid.
What?
He got angry because...
I don't remember.
Tell me about it!
- I don't remember!
I got angry because mom scolds me.
What are you screaming at me?
What are you saying?
With that angry face.
- I didn't think about it.
"A flower told me" performed by
the first grade
from the Anatole France school.
I found in the night a paper flower
Over the snow sleeping,
so I give it warm
The flower told me: Today is Christmas.
Your tree has blossomed,
today is Christmas.
In Leo's school there's
a lot of muslim people
and that's a difficult subject for the
teacher at this time of the year.
Leo told me that the teacher explained
what Christmas is.
For muslims it's not Christmas,
it's Laid.
Then she explained each kid how it
works for the other.
This time of year is
a puzzle for teachers.
The french school is also secular,
but Christmas is very invasive.
Is very difficult.
It makes the tensions between
communities more difficult in school.
It really is a special time.
Hi!
- How are you?
How are you?
- Very good!
Hi Julia, hello Milo.
- What's his name?
He's Geronimo
- And you?
Mariana, come in.
You get "Dulce de leche" there?
We import it from Germany.
Really?
A friend ask it...
They send it for orders over 80 euros.
Then she said she was
gonna make an order.
No one eats this dessert!
So we make this group with ten people
and we order "dulce de leche".
I will have a telephone in Finland.
When?
When I return home.
I will get one for my birthday.
And who is gonna give you one?
- We are.
She's already at an age
she knows it's not a toy.
Everyone knows it's not a toy!
Many kids play with their phone.
And how they handle phones in school?
They are lot allowed to touch them.
But they keep them?
But are not allowed to touch them.
And they obey?
Yeah. I tried to call Julia once
to tell her something.
I tried calling a
friend of hers during
recess. Didn't know
how the policy works.
Since Julia doesn't have one.
So I waited until recess and called.
And the girl never responded.
Then she called me in the afternoon
and asked if I call her before.
I say I did and she told me she couldn't
use the phone in school.
A lot of the kids that
come home alone,
you can see them
talking to their parents.
They say "I'm walking home now,
I see a bike"
and they narrate their
entire journey home.
So it's like when we were kids,
but with phones.
Sure,
of course this are different times.
Since when is school
in Finland this way?
It was always like this?
When your parents went to school?
It was different then.
There were more schools in the country,
towns were smaller.
Then people started moving
to the cities.
All the country changed
in the seventies.
Yeah, in the seventies...
even the diet changed.
Everyone got focused and people asked
"Where are we wanna go from here?"
I think so, because in nutrition for
example salads became very popular.
They say "we are full of fat people,
and we don't want to be fat."
Because that brings problems.
The state started the change.
Like they said "Where are we standing
and where do we want to go from here".
They invested in research and say
"let's go forward".
At the same time they changed
the way kitchens are organized.
Houses itselves changed too.
Yes, houses too. They got to research
what's more functional.
It was a process that starter
after World War II.
People grew up, and thought about
their place in the world.
They lost because they joined the
other side since Russia invaded them.
Yes.
Russia was taking their territory.
Then to recover from that, when they
finally got rid of the weight of war
then may be when it happened.
It was an economic issue. Finland
had to pay war reparations
then when they finish paying.
That's when they got the money to do...
For example what you say about salads.
In a country where vegetables
for salad don't grow
you need to plan it in with greenhouses.
You can tell people to eat more salads.
But the school give them.
But they have to put lettuce
in the supermarkets.
Yes, all the infrastructure. I know they
tested how many calories people eated.
And it's the same government? The same
political party?
Now it changed.
But they keep all that.
Well they want to remove some things.
But people oppose it.
It's a socialist utopia,
Finland is utopical.
In the summer Agustina
came to Buenos Aires.
And we meet with her and her
husband in our home.
They told us about
Finland's educational
system and how it
got to what it is today.
It was something state driven
that involved a lot of areas
beyond education.
The state wanted to improve the quality
of life of the people of Finland.
And I feel that both in France and
Argentina, like in other countries,
we see the opposite going on.
And education won't escape this process.
What you mean with opposite?
In the sense that if you have a country
that limits the rights of it's people
that probably will affect
public education system.
I'm thinking about the
riots I saw in Paris lately
the protest about the new labor laws.
- Yes.
I see France as a place where the idea
of a welfare state is culturally rooted.
How does the people see this?
We don't live well because they
try to infringe the rights.
And there's riots and demonstrations.
Because the idea of a welfare state
is still very strong in the french life.
You know how this is.
This is a neoliberal global process
that's happening here too.
That makes everyone question this model.
Not only in the rights of the workers
but also in other areas.
But I don't think this
affects education.
I think education is still a stronghold.
I don't think for example that
budget cuts will affect it.
I don't think so.
To the water!
Nooo!
For example in France the budget
in poor areas is higher.
Leo is in a disadvantaged city, but in
the best school, in the best place.
But has less budget than other schools,
because they want to compensate that.
There's also a lot of love for
public education.
I don't feel that Leo is lacking
in anything.
He can make music inside his school
and I love that.
He's learning to play the horn,
he choose that.
He also learned chess.
Things beyond formal education
that I think are great.
I don't feel anything is missing for him
or that he's not having
a quality education.
It's an institution that holds up and
for which we can feel proud of.
Two questions I always ask myself
when I think on parenting.
What world am I leaving my kid?
What son am I leaving to this world?
Or better yet in plural: What world are
we leaving to our children?
And what children are
we leaving to this world?
When I think about those questions
like that, in general.
Is when my concerns about public
education become more important to me.
The question is,
why is educational quality
an issue now,
when before it was not.
Because I believe
that our school systems
have been better at
incorporate more kids
to distribute more titles and degrees,
than developing people's knowledge.
I went to the UBA,
the Public University of Buenos Aires.
Today I come back
because of this documentary.
I want to interview the professors
from the Sociology of Education Class.
Every government, no matter what
political alignment they have
have to respond to the
demand of schooling.
Families, towns,
the countryside and small
cities,
all demand schools and education.
"We want a high school in our town."
And no politician can say no.
No politician is gonna
say: "I can't build you
the high school because
there's no teachers."
"When I got teachers I
will build you the school."
In Latin America we have
improvise the resources.
We have expanded
schools improvising buildings,
that are not as big and
important as the ones
from the era of the
"education for a few".
Are cheap buildings often improvised
in a parochial house.
Or another physical location.
We also improvise teachers.
23% of all teachers
in the year 2000 said
they started working
before graduating.
Even today there are
lots of students that
are incorporated
without graduating first.
Because there are spaces to be filled.
You can't stop the demand for schooling.
Government Palace,
Presidency of the Nation.
Is easier to bring schooling than
developing knowledge.
I would say that
instead of the right to an
education, that is the
right to school our citizens.
We should talk about a right to
knowledge, to Math, Calculus.
A right to an expressive competition,
what are we using now.
Ministry of Economy.
The minister of
economy and social
development can distribute
incomes and money.
Like an universal assignment.
Ministry of Health and
Social Development.
Can distribute houses,
shoes, computers, books.
Things can be distribute.
And we sometimes talk without knowing
and say stuff like distribute knowledge.
Knowledge is developed,
with a co production team.
Is as important what
the teacher and the
school as what the
family and children gives.
Then you have to ask
yourselves what conditions
should families have
so their kids be ready.
For doing what only they can do for
the learning experience to happen.
Ministry of Education.
Is very difficult to think you can
teach like it was historically.
How can a kid be in school if he has
no access to healthcare for example.
When a kid got sick they think its
because he's not interested in school.
And maybe they are sick three weeks,
because
in places with lots of
pollution for example.
There's tons of respiratory diseases.
Then I think only the state have the
tools to integrate this rights.
The policies to serve this rights and
promote situations of better life style.
A policy that works towards the
improvement of the teaching environment
should strengthen their main characters.
A while ago there was this project
called "Teacher more teacher".
That imply working
in teaching couples,
with trainers that
went to the classrooms.
And that helped develop the teachers
in their environment.
Watching the advances of the students.
But it was too expensive.
Is easier to do a standardized training
with a bunch of content.
Not knowing how they process that.
Instead of a training
that imply a more active
discussion,
and a following to what is done.
We have to prove that like in other
countries, the state is a good manager.
We in Argentina can't
we have a good manager?
Why can't we have quality public school?
We can work miracles, there's not enough
six points of the GNP
to have a good public school.
It's not only a budget problem, but
it is a budget problem.
It's an issue of social investment.
And we need to fight to
increase the resources
and at the same time
reform the school system.
It should be up to the challenge that
schools face in this society.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a space
scientist and drummer.
What was that idea of yours?
I will send robots with instruments
so they play music.
I send them to the other side of
a black hole so they play music.
I send some to play music and
others to take pictures.
And why would you send robots
to play music at space?
Because...
If there's an alien who likes music,
it will approach them.
And they will take it's picture
and send it to me.
So the music attract aliens?
Yes.
But how do robots
know how to play music?
I put it on a USB device.