Extended Bibliography

Education World® : Curriculum : Meeting the Educational Needs of Migrant Students

Brown, Mary Daniels. "Education World: Curriculum : Meeting the Educational Needs of Migrant Students." Education World The Educator's Best Friend. 24 May 2001. Web. 6 Feb. 2011. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr347.shtml.

This article published by Education World focuses on the San Jose School (La Escuela de San Jose). Sister Gaye Moorhead was the director of the school as well as the Mercy Migrant Educational Ministry. Moorhead comments on the educational struggles migrant children face in the United State while many times working full time in the fields. Moorhead breaks down these struggles into four main components; Mobility, Language barriers,Poverty, and Self-Confidence/ Self-Esteem. Each of these struggles are specifically unique to migrant children who travel from farm to farm throughout the school year working to harvest crops. San Jose School addresses one of the most evident challenges, as not having a curriculum that is universal between schools when children relocate. To combat this the San Jose School moves between Ohio and Florida with their students. This provides a structure that wouldn't otherwise be available. The next challenge Moorhead addressed was the barrier between native Spanish speaking children and English instruction. San Jose School uses an all English curriculum to advance students to speaking English. This is coupled with small class sizes and one on one Spanish directions to students. Poverty and Self-Esteem and confidence work hand in hand as Moorhead points out. Many children come from low income families. These students also lack many of the same physical accessories that other students may have. The observation of these differences and lack of possession can create the largest challenge that students may face coming from migrant families. Michele Schroeck, San Jose's educational coordinator, stated that San Jose School “gives children the confidence and support they need to try and to learn.” However due to lack of funding and support of a traveling staff, San Jose's last scholastic year was in 2002.

Brown draws on some very key aspects in the development and environment that migrant students face. The focus on San Jose School, which is a pivotal step in the educational progress for the migrant community, points the educational community as a whole to start focusing on why there is a deficiency in the education of migrant children. While the dropout rate of farm and migrant workers continues to stay around 45 percent, there has been little done to make a lasting difference in improve the conditions in which these students learn. There have been small movements in the educational community such as San Jose School, to implement new methods of teaching migrant students. Because the daily lives of these children vary so greatly from a typical adolescence, Moorhead decided not to adapt migrant students to traditional schools but to create a new school specifically for migrant children. The creation of a “Migrant school” has had great results in helping students become proficient in their studies. “Academically, about 66 to 75 percent of our students end up on grade level in reading and math,”(Schroeck). This is a great improvement over national levels which are around 50 percent according to Schroek. This improvement is one that should not be overlooked by educators worldwide. Moorhead has proven this system to be successful and shown results in working with the first mobile schools.

My last post touched very closely to this article. I have looked for any examples of new and innovating migrant education pedagogies. This is the first example that I believe takes an approach that moves away from the traditional frame work of schools. With so many students in America, however still a great minority, who come from migrant families for there not to be more programs that model San Jose School's amazes me. San Jose became successful enough to establish federal funding, yet small enough to loose local funding and support from their communities. This program created a very heavy labor and financial hardship on the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, who alone established and administered the network of schools. They tried many attempts to continue this program, even creating a national advertising campaign to find staff for their school, yet failed to proceed. These programs I believe fall under all existing federal mandates for aid in migrant education. However there is an obvious lack of motivation from the professional side of education to take on the challenges laid out by Moorhead. For there not to be a significant group of educators available to staff a single school dedicated to this demographic of students seems very discouraging to me as a student of education was well as someone who still sees this country as a land of freedom and opportunity.

Continuing to look into the educational process and environment that migrant children face I'm puzzled to know whether this is a legitimate problem that American Educators feel the need to address, or whether it is another “minority” issue to be swept under the table of politics and budgeting. Too many times legislatures and policies focus on the bottom line, and cut programs that only benefit a few faceless groups. As the number of Spanish speaking families who ultimately make the United States their home increases, it is only a matter of time before this silent group speaks their opinion of an out dated system. There is a growing number of adults now, who grew up in migrant families, that are working to improve their communities and give back to the families that live in the same circumstances they grew up in. Is this the only source, along with a minimal number of educators, who actively purse the advancement of Migrant Education? Many times it seems that the general public may associate migrant workers with illegal immigrants, this misconception may be one factor that is currently hindering the advancement of migrant education. With the current economical environment in conjunction fiscal cuts across the board in education many educational professional may see this faction in education as a threat to their own funding. Rooted deep in American Education, one of the main goals is to assimilate or “Americanize” our youth to better serve in a democratic nation. John Dewey may have best illustrated these ideas in his book The Child and the Curriculum which focuses not only on the content that is learned but the action and involvement of learning new concepts.

Extended Bibliography: Child migrant workers in Mexico miss out on education and a safe environment

SINALOA STATE, Mexico, 2 March 2007 – For migrant farm workers, the work day often begins long before the sun rises. Today, Javier and a few of the other workers huddle around a fire for warmth until the boss arrives and signals them to start working.

Child migrant workers in Mexico miss out on education and a safe environment
Uploaded by UNICEF_Television. - News videos hot off the press.

UNICEF_Television. "Dailymotion - Child migrant workers in Mexico miss out on education and a safe environment - a News & Politics video." Dailymotion - Online Videos, Music, and Movies. Watch a Video Today!. 4 Feb. 2011. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4m7k5_child-migrant-workers-in-mexico-mis_news.

Thomas Nybo, a UNICEF correspondent reports on the state of education for many children in northern Mexico. This video clip describes the working conditions of children migrant workers ageing from 6-10 years old, face in communities across Mexico. Theresa Kilbane, a UNICEF Protection Officer states that since migrant workers travel from place to place, no one group feels responsible to help them. UNICEF is a division of the United Nations with a focus on helping to improve the opportunities of children across the world. In Mexico UNICEF is helping by providing children with school kits, books and other materials. UNICEF also works with the local government and farm owners to collaborate on new ways to improve the education and working conditions of migrant workers and their families.

Nybo's commentary on the state of education for migrant workers, addresses the concern that many children are not receiving an adequate level of education. Many of these children both work and live in camps ran by the farms. To help children have access to schools farm owners have created their own schools within the camps. With only a fraction of the children actually attending these schools, the educational progress of migrant families dwindles to almost nothing. With the help of organizations like UNICEF, migrant children are giving a better opportunity to succeed. However UNICEF's efforts alone are not enough. Without more government aid and support from local communities migrant workers and their children will continue to “live as an excluded minority within the country.”(Kilbane)

It's wonderful to know that organizations like UNICEF are working to help migrant children. One concern that I have always had is wether or not these organizations are helping to solve the problem from the root source. Many times charities help individuals or groups once a situation has already occurred. Other than aid to natural disasters, I feel more can be done to help prevent future generations from the same trials of the past. UNICEF is helping current students by providing them with school supplies and organizing communities to help these children. This doesn't help the next generation of children have a better chance to success. By only taking a re-active approach to helping migrant children we are not laying sufficient enough ground work to have a sustainable solution. Nybo reports that these children live in camp between September and May. This of course is the traditional school session, as well as the growing season. By having children dislocated from their home communities they are forced to attend the camp schools which aren’t adequate to local standards. I believe that this is a major issue and problem that should be addressed by organizations like UNICEF. Why spend money and resources on camp schools when we can compensate the local schools to accommodate migrant children. Like Kilbane stated these children are not immigrants, they are families from within Mexico that are treated as a sub-culture that dwell beneath local communities.

The traditional school season corresponds with the growing/picking season. This is conflict of work and school makes it extremely difficult for children to regularly attend classes. UNICEF has only worked to assist in this already failing system. From my research it appears there currently are no organizations or programs that are proactivly designed around the needs of migrant workers and their children. There are, according to UNICEF over 300,000 children in Northern Mexico that are classified as migrant workers. With such a large number of children working, why hasn't there been a school curriculum specifically developed around the unique learning environment these children face. The are several situations that could be developed to help children succeed in a hands on learning environment. This problem has gone on for too long. We wait for children to grow up with out an education, then turn around and try and help them catch up. We need to focus new efforts on why there isn't a program available to help these children before hand. One of my many thoughts is around alternative education and development of a school and curriculum specifically for the scheduling and seasons of migrant workers.

Extended Bibliography: “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN.”

REGAN, TIMOTHY F., and PETER SCARTH. “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN.” 1968. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

Regan and Scarth in their article “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN.” comment on their concerns and observations on programs for English for Speakers of Other Languages, and how these programs are or are not working for Mexican-Americans. They directly address different methodologies and approaches that were being used in 1968. Regan and Scarth also discuss the short comings and and lack of regard for the Mexican-American’s “psychological set and his cultural heritage.”(Regan, Scarth 1) This article addresses how the psychological set and heritage is immensely important for the Mexican-American's retention of the curriculum.

The process that the educational community has used in teaching Mexican-American's English in the class room, according to Regan and Scarth, has me lacking guidance and direction for many generations. They address multiple aspects of the ESOL program that have had short comings in the past. Regan and Scarth point out teachers continue to disregarded research that supports using Spanish in the classroom and insist on having students only speak English. Regan and Scarth go on to discuss the importance of empathy for the Spanish speaking students cultural backgrounds that the students call upon for understanding and using their new learn skills.

The evidence that Regan and Scarth present in they article from 1968 is still evident in the education system today. Many teachers who interact and work with Spanish speaking students encounter the same issues address in this article. As more and more Mexican-American students are learning in English based classrooms the philosophy of Educators must be open and willing to adapt their methods to help these students learn. The unique backgrounds and heritages that many Mexican-American and migrant workers families' come from present teachers with learning abilities they have not encountered with native english speaking students or urban students. These new learning environments require new techniques and programs that have not previously used in the public education system.

The complex ideas and methodologies addressed by Regan and Scarth are ones that all educators must ask and address for themselves when they are working with more and more spanish speaking students. With the help and use of ESOL specialists teachers and schools have had more success helping Spanish speaking students in their classrooms. Many concerns can arise out of the current state of these programs. One specifically not addressed by Regan and Scarth is the need for Mexican-American students to be full assimilated into American culture. One of the main focuses in primary school is to help children become and act “American.” This step I believe is being left out of the education process for Mexican-American students for respect to their home life and cultural background. However with the lack of becoming “American” will these students have a harder time continuing their American education, one that is so reliant on standardized tests geared toward American students?