Tuesday, July 19, De la Sallle

Back to Kindergarden:

In schools that teach Euskera (the Basque language) children use the word "andereño" to address their female teachers.  Male teachers are addressed as "maisu." We have the pleasure of visiting El colegio de la Salle, a Catholic school, and Andereño Lourdes gives us a tour and explanation of the pedogogical system they use in this bilingual school.  The Ulises Program is one where they use a series of large cultural flashcards at an early age to familiarize pre-primary learners with what we might call "scientific and cultural literacy," with a global emphasis.   They also use a video program call Sensor that gradually introduces Euskera vocabulary via slick images centering on natural science and global geography.  Andereño Lourdes gives us a nice description of the school's schedule and its founder, San Juan Bautista de la Salle. 


We walk back to school for Ana's culture class.  Today we learn about the different regions of Spain, the different climates and cover pages 8-13 in our book.  And tonight we view the movie "Los girasoles ciegos" (The Blind Sunflowers) based on a book by Alberto Mendez, about the tragic Spanish Civil War and its effect on one small family.  It is very sad, but it gives a realistic portrayal of the church / state, iron-fisted rule of Spain that lasted from 1939-1975.  Spain is still healing from its civil war, and maybe this is hard for us to grasp, but in the Basque Country especially, there are daily reminders that many issues are still unresolved.