Elementary School in Mexico City

We found a school for Jacob & Sabine. They were able to start by the end of the first week of school. They are attending "Republica de Guatemala" Elementary-- it seems a lot of the public schools in the city are named after countries (the other two public schools in our area were "Reino de Jordania" and "Republica de Bulgaria"). It was actually a bit difficult to track down the public schools in our area of the city. There are more private elementaries, at least in this part of Mexico City.


The school week starts with a formal flag ceremony every Monday morning in the central patio of the school -- singing songs and saluting the flag and listening to a short talk about the important holidays of the week, or important Mexican historical events or figures from the week. (This is the only day of the week that parents are allowed onto the school campus). Jacob printed out a copy of the Mexican National Anthom and Flag Salute that he takes with him every Monday.

The first challenge was to purchase uniforms for the kids. There is a lady that comes each morning to the front entrance of the school to take orders--which has made getting the correct size has been a bit of a challenge. We are still waiting on the PE uniforms. The students have PE 2 days a week. On those days they are required to wear a uniform sweatsuit and tennis shoes for the day. The other 3 days they wear the regular uniform with black shoes.

The school is a short bus or taxi ride from our apartment. The plan was to take transportation in the morning and walk home after school, but they've had a lot of books to carry these first days. We've been taking the public "microbus" most days so far.



One of the unique requirements here is that every textbook and notebook must be covered with colored paper. Each student has 4-6 notebooks which must be covered with a predetermined paper and plastic cover (See photo). Gretchen first encountered how engrained this system is for the students when she told her classes that she would like them to have a notebook for the English class. She was immediately bombarded with questions from all 40 students -- what size, graph or lined, what color cover, etc.



The public school day is short -- 8:00-12:30 in most public schools, so we have tracked down some afternoon activities for Jacob & Sabine. There is a very nice Cultural Center near their school which has Theater, Dance and Art classes.