Schools in Spain by Julie Fitzpatrick

As an education major, I was very excited when the international center announced that there would be an opportunity to teach in schools here. I knew that they would be different than the schools/daycares that I had taught at in the United States, but the one difference I noticed the most was how much more freedom the children have here in Spain. Every day, I arrive at the school while the children are at recess. I often notice many kids climbing on things and doing things that would be corrected at schools in the United States. When there are kids climbing on the fence, I feel that I should tell them to get down because it seems dangerous, but the teachers are not concerned, and I have noticed that the kids don’t get hurt like I think they will. Another act of freedom that I have noticed is with the bathroom. In the daycare that I worked at in the US this summer, the bathrooms were in the classroom, and often kids had to be supervised in there, or have their diaper changed. At the school I teach at, all of the classrooms open up to a courtyard and the bathroom is across the courtyard from the classrooms. The children, although they are 3-years-old, are allowed to leave the classroom (with permission) on their own and come back when they are done. I think teachers in the United States need to trust their students more and give them more freedom within reason. It is interesting to see the degree to which the teachers trust their students and how different the classroom experience can be in another culture.