Learning From Rural Mexican Schools About Commitment and Work

Abstract

During the last 3 years we have made many visits to two rural Mexican primary schools. As a result of our experiences there, we believe that students' sense of responsibility in a school setting depends on the nature of the commitments they make and the work they do in and for the school. We have also learned that certain educational and social concepts expressed in Spanish can enrich our thinking about the social curriculum that teachers and students create in classrooms. In this article we explore the idea of students' "social work" by explaining what we are learning in these Mexican schools and providing examples from selected writings about life in U.S. classrooms.