Gilroy: population 51,173.
Mexico City: population 8,800,000.
With the move from cozy Gilroy to one of most populous
metropolises on the planet came a few adjustments for the Schrock
family.
Also with this story, a video interview with visiting teacher
Jose Ernesto Colin, with whom the Schrocks traded places.
Gilroy: population 51,173.
Mexico City: population 8,800,000.
With the move from cozy Gilroy to one of most populous metropolises on the planet came a few adjustments for the Schrock family.
Gretchen Yoder-Schrock, 42, a Spanish teacher at Gilroy High School, and Ernesto Colin, 46, an English teacher from Mexico City, are trading lives for a year as part of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program – a program established in 1946 to increase global understanding – and brought their families along for the ride. Both families have been welcomed to their surrogate homes with open arms and are enjoying total immersion into the curious and quirky customs of their new countries.
The teachers – two of the 279,500 “Fulbrighters” that have participated in the program since its inception – exchanged homes, friends, cars and classrooms. They struck a deal and are paying each other rent for the year. Both continue to receive their paychecks from their home schools with Colin receiving a stipend from Fulbright to make ends meet in the States: he earned about $4,800 annually in Mexico, a fraction of what teachers in Gilroy earn. Yoder-Schrock earned $51,000 last year including benefits, according to district documents. Colin’s wife and Yoder-Schrock’s husband, Kermit – migrant education director at GHS – will enjoy the year off to explore their new homes.
The Schrocks drove their car to Mexico City but regularly make use of public transportation or their feet to get around. Colin, meanwhile, is enjoying a 10-minute drive to GHS in the car Yoder-Schrock left behind, a relief compared to the three-hour round-trip subway commute he made every day in Mexico City.
“I don’t miss that,” Colin said. “It’s simpler here. I get an extra hour of sleep.”
Their new homes have also reminded them that “we’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy,” Yoder-Schrock joked. From the tree-lined streets and well-manicured lawns of Silicon Valley suburbia to a 10th-story apartment view of rooftops and the immense sprawl of downtown Mexico City, the Schrocks are adjusting to the culture shock.
While the Schrock children, Jacob and Sabine – previously Las Animas Elementary School students – couldn’t sleep their first night, Colin and his family are sleeping better than ever.
“It certainly is quiet here,” Colin said as he served his daughters, Meredith, 11, and Lorelein, 9, chicken and salad from a large wooden bowl in the Schrock’s light-filled, spacious kitchen. “Gilroy is very peaceful.”
Just like American children, Colin’s daughters saved their vegetables for last and would have avoided them altogether had their father not convinced them otherwise.
Yoder-Schrock and Colin speak regularly to offer tips on how to navigate their new countries.
Upon arriving at GHS, Colin was struck by the hospitality of the staff, the amount of time teachers are allocated for planning and the boisterousness of some of his students. In Mexico, Colin teaches English to students from middle school to university. In a country where school is a privilege, students are in school to learn and don’t play as much in the classroom as American students, Colin said.
“The students, at first, looked like they were going to play with me,” Colin said. “But all students test their teachers. Kids at this level still play a lot.”
Students in Mexico are more focussed on their studies, he said.
“They know what they want,” he said. “They don’t have as many chances in Mexico. Only the best can make it. The world is tough – there’s a lot of competition out there.”
Daughter Meredith added, with her father translating, that, except for the language barrier, her schoolwork is easier than back home.
Yoder-Schrock, meanwhile, reported warm, respectful students but was surprised by the expansive vocabulary of English expletives Mexican students possess.
“People in general don’t realize the weight that bad words carry in a second language and they joke around with them, not really aware of what they are saying,” she wrote.
Four letter words aside, Yoder-Schrock is regularly mobbed by students eager to practice their English.
“I’m somewhat of a star at school!” she wrote. “Everyone tries out their English on me and crowds around me when I’m out of the classroom. Now I know how it feels to have paparazzi following you!”
While American teachers cover their walls with decorations and tend to stay in one spot, Mexican teachers are on the move. Most teachers work both the morning and afternoon sessions in order to make ends meet, Yoder-Schrock said, and most school buildings are used for both a morning session and an afternoon session – a more economical way to get the most out of the buildings.
A classroom at Secundaria Diurna 188, where Yoder-Schrock teaches, is sparse with bare, cinder block walls and cement floors, a simple chalk board and wooden desks lined up neatly in rows. However, the school boasts two impressive computer labs Yoder-Schrock hopes to use to put her students in touch with GHS students.
Although the differences are vast, Colin and Yoder-Schrock relish the new experiences and the opportunity to share their customs with new friends.
“I’m really enjoying getting to know the staff,” Yoder-Schrock said. “The teachers are really kind and patient with me and my questions. They are planning to take me out for pozole – a pork and hominy soup – on payday.”
She’s had a few laughs while getting to know her colleagues and remembered an enthusiastic music teacher that shouted “I love you” in English when she introduced herself to the staff and peered through binoculars when a vice principal made a presentation.
Officials from both countries were excited to send teachers to a foreign country. Colin and Yoder-Schrock will return home with a year’s worth of experience to enrich their teaching perspective.
“It will be good for the kids, good for the school and good for the community,” GHS Principal James Maxwell said. When the school district and trustees approved the exchange, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Basha Millhollen agreed that the advantages of the exchange were numerous and would help the teachers “sharpen their sword,” bringing their knowledge back to enhance their home schools.
“I did this to develop my career,” Colin said. “For the experience and challenge and to enrich my career.”
Yoder-Schrock agreed.
“One of my goals in participating in this exchange is for GHS students and the broader Gilroy community to learn through my experiences,” she wrote. “This exchange is most certainly not just about me and my family going off to have a neat year – it is also about our community having the opportunity to learn about the Mexican school system, Mexican students, and daily life in Mexico City.”
