School Visits

This week I had the opportunity to visit two schools in Santiago-- Thursday I went to a Special Needs School with one of the H.S. Bible classes that visit there every week--It was so interesting to see how the school works-- It was a bit intimidating with not knowing Spanish, and not being able to talk to the kids and teachers. The school was very bright and clean-- but the materials were very sparse. The students were using notebooks , and I've been told that that is very common. There were no children's books or other materials in the classrooms. It made me really want to be able to talk to the teacher's and do some teacher training with them-- but I know the teacher's are doing the best that they know or can. The cost of the school had gone up in the last few years, and it makes it harder for lower income students to attend. The classes were divided up by age, and were small groups-- approximately 7-9 kids in each class. It makes you really appreciate what you have-- with seeing so little that they have... 

Friday I went to another school with a different HS Bible class-- this time I went to a regular school that is funded by Go Ministries. The school is EC to 8th grade with 2 sessions-- 4 hrs in the morning and 4 in the afternoon (for different kids). The school had slightly more materials- the EC/Kinder classes had toys in the room-- the rooms were very small-- the building itself was 3 stories-- and built very compact-- with their commons area at the very bottom.