And Suddenly... an American School

Since entering the doors of Treasure Mountain Junior High School for the first time, eight months ago, every aspect of my life has improved.  My professional life changed entirely.

I never worked in a school. My days were filled with politics, crime and theater.

I am a journalist.

Regardless of my current job, as an English Language Learner paraprofessional, I guess I'll always be a journalist.  I have to write this story.

My experience has been enormously rewarding. I work with exceptional teachers. I feel like a teacher. To be a teacher, one needs heart, soul, dedication, and experience.

I’m in class to help teachers.  But, really, I’m there to help the students.

An imaginary limbo

My job is to help Hispanic students. In reality, the vast majority are Americans, born in the United States.  But, most parents were born in Mexico.

Some of my students have never been to Mexico and are not literate in Spanish.

However, we place them in an imaginary social limbo; between two countries, so close and distant at the same time like Mexico and the United States.

Life has given them an opportunity they do not recognize yet, although everyone repeats constantly to them how lucky they are. We try hard, but it is very difficult to make them understand that they are privileged.

They see their parents, if they are lucky enough to have them here, crushed by the need to earn money. Their parents work two or three jobs to support relatives both here and in Mexico.

Many of their friends live in huge houses, travel in luxury cars and go to paradisiac places for vacation. Typically, they share a tiny apartment with many families. But these students do not even have the right to envy, because they are privileged.

They are 13 and 14 years. In a few years, their perspective will broaden.

For now, we need to keep them making choices that will harm them down the road, limit their opportunities, and disappoint their families. 

The future holds for them a better life, in every way. The great effort made by their parents deservse a reward.

Integration at school

I only know a tiny part of the American educational system—a middle school in a small town in Utah. I cannot generalize. But from what I've seen here, education is provided in the most personalized way possible, encouraging the talent of the most advanced, while it provides additional support to students who need it. In the latter consists precisely my work. So I say that the school does much to promote the integration of Hispanic students. Could it do more? Of course. But what is done is now praiseworthy.

It is a pleasure to work with them. They are cheerful, intelligent and creative. They are the same as the rest of the students. The same can be said of everyone who works at the school -- valuable people that prioritizes student education above anything else. It is a pleasure work with you all.

Antonio Ortiz. ELL at Treasure Mountain Junior High